LOSE A VERY LARGE GAUR 357 



to aim too high, as is often done, owing to the target presented 

 by the huge dorsal ridge. A bullet may be driven clean 

 through the hump or ridge in question without even bringing 

 the animal to the ground. 1 If hit near enough the spine, how- 

 ever, the shock will stun him temporarily, and he will fall to 

 the ground as if dead, but will be up in a second and off again 

 as if untouched. I have, however, referred to this elsewhere. 



I remember an instance of this happening to myself on one 

 occasion, and how awfully disgusted I was at losing the animal, 

 which was a very large gaur the largest, in fact, it has ever 

 been my fortune to see. I lost this animal partly through 

 being too impatient and partly through bad shooting. 



Whilst encamped at a place called Mezli Sakan on the Tha- 

 na-da choung, we struck the fresh trail of a large solitary gaur, 

 which, however, winded us and made off. We again took them 

 on, and after crossing some three miles of country the tracks 

 led into some rather thick cover. Leaving my men outside, I 

 entered with the 8-bore and worked my way cautiously into 

 the jungle. I noticed while moving along that there were 

 numerous fresh tracks of elephants about, and was only hoping 

 that I shouldn't come across any of the brutes in the cover I 

 was then in, as I was not very keen on tackling an elephant 

 in such thick cover. 



After having crawled along carefully for about 100 yards, I 

 suddenly caught sight in the gloom of what I took to be the 

 huge dark posterior of a young elephant. Thinking I had got 

 into the middle of a herd of these animals, I immediately 

 backed out to where I had left my companions in order to 

 arrange as to the next move. On getting outside the cover, I 

 heard a crash and a tremendous chattering of monkeys near 

 the spot I had just vacated. We returned to the locality and 

 found, much to my disgust, that the supposed elephant was in 

 reality the gaur we had been following up, which had again 

 winded us and made off. 



I was awfully annoyed and ashamed of myself. We picked 

 up the tracks again, however, which, after crossing the Tha- 

 na-da choung stream near the camp, entered the jungle on 



1 I once shot a gaur through the dorsal ridge, a little in front of the 

 hump, and he was paralyzed F. T. P. 



