FIRING THE GRASS TO DRIVE OUT GAUR 343 



to find that the gaur had winded us, and were making off. I 

 just caught a glimpse of one animal as he was charging off", 

 but did not care to fire and needlessly alarm the herd, as I 

 hoped to obtain a shot later on, by taking on the tracks when 

 the animals would probably lie up in some cover during the 

 heat of the day. 



After taking on the tracks for about a mile, Moung Hpe 

 informed me that the animals had settled down into a steady 

 walk, and had even begun to crop the grass here and there 

 whilst on the move, which was a sure sign that they had got 

 over their alarm. After keeping steadily on through some 

 open " indaing," l or bastard teak forest, the tracks led into a 

 dense patch of tall elephant grass some ten or twelve feet 

 high, in which, according to Moung Hpe, they would most 

 likely lie up during the heat of the day. This patch of grass, 

 which was about half-a-mile long by about 200 yards broad, 

 would have completely hidden out of sight the tallest elephant. 

 The dry and parched state of everything on the ground 

 rendered our stalking the animals in this cover quite an impos- 

 sibility. It is on occasions like these that a howdah elephant 

 is useful. 



We then arranged to set fire to the grass, and to place 

 myself in a position where I should be able to get a shot when 

 the animals broke from the cover. This was easier said than 

 done, however, as it was almost impossible to tell at which 

 particular spot the herd would break from the grass. The 

 patch appeared to be about a quarter of a mile long by about 

 1 50 yards broad, shaped like a parallelogram. We eventually 

 decided that I should station myself at one of the angles 

 of the patch furthest away from the spot where the bison had 

 entered, and that the grass at the end round about the track 

 taken by the gaur should be fired simultaneously in a dozen 

 different places. 



I may mention that I had with me on this occasion, besides 

 Moung Hpe, two other men. 



The grass was then fired, after I had taken up my stand. 

 About an hour afterwards, I heard the gaur make a tremen- 

 dous charge, but for the life of me could not tell in which 

 1 Often called Eeingeen in Lower Burma. F. T. P. 



