344 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



direction to expect it from, as the prodigious noise made by 

 the roaring and crackling of the burning grass nearly drowned 

 every other sound. Eventually I succeeded after running as 

 fast as I could for a distance of about 50 yards through 

 fairly thick tree jungle, which grew right up to the edge of the 

 patch of grass in getting a snap-shot at a large bull as he 

 burst out of the cover some 25 yards off. He dropped like a 

 stone to the shot, but struggled on to his feet again immedi- 

 ately, only to be laid low by my second barrel, which hit him 

 on the neck, bringing him to the ground with a thud. My 

 first shot had passed through his dorsal ridge close to the 

 spine, giving him the temporary shock which floored him. 



Always give any animal which drops like a stone to your 

 first shot a second barrel, as it may have been only stunned 

 temporarily by the brain or spinal cord having been grazed. 

 An animal shot through the heart, or even in the brain, will 

 not fall dead on the spot ; they will often stagger away a few 

 yards before dropping. Again, an animal shot through the 

 neck or back, when the spinal cord has been severed, will drop 

 like a stone. 



This was my first bison, an animal standing some 17 J hands 

 high, with small horns. 



Two days later I came upon the tracks of a couple of 

 solitary or " neenaung " gaur in the bed of the Nampan 

 stream. Whilst we were taking them up, however, and when 

 within about thirty paces or so of the two huge brutes, which 

 were sleeping close to one another, we were suddenly startled 

 by hearing a number of girls laughing and shrieking. Both 

 animals on hearing the unusual noise had jumped to their 

 feet, and dashed away before I could catch even a glimpse of 

 them. This was most annoying, to say the least of it, and I 

 was astonished to think that women should have come so far 

 away from any habitation unattended by any men. Villagers 

 often travel miles into the jungle on expeditions of this sort, 

 some for the purpose of cutting cane, bamboo, or " shaw " 

 the bark of a tree used for making rope and binding purposes 

 others for collecting honey, berries, mushrooms, iguanas' eggs, 

 or catching fish, which abound in nearly every stream. The 

 noise seemed to come from the bend of an adjacent stream, 



