370 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



Syers, apart from his internal injuries, which were extremely 

 serious. In fact, he was surprised that Syers should have 

 lived so long as eleven and a half hours after the accident. 

 For the benefit of other sportsmen I may here state that 

 Syers, who before his accident was a firm believer in the 

 577 express for big-game shooting, and with which weapon 

 he had shot no less than thirteen bison and other large game, 

 told me, shortly before he expired, that if he had been armed 

 with an 8-bore the bull, in his last charge, would have been 

 stopped ; and earnestly entreated me never to go after bison 

 again with so small a weapon. With this sad experience 

 before me, it is needless to add that in future I will follow out 

 this last advice of the best sportsman who ever breathed." 



The above narrative speaks for itself, and is a very sad 

 instance of the folly of using small-bore rifles upon large and 

 dangerous game, especially in thick cover where it is abso- 

 lutely imperative to prevent an animal from making good its 

 charge. I cannot point out too often the danger of using 

 small-bores. 1 I remember on one occasion, shortly after the 

 purchase of a "303 Metford rifle, having a very close shave 

 from a huge solitary bull tsine or Bos sondaicus. I was 

 walking along the top of a ridge covered with dwarf bamboo 

 bushes, when, at a distance of only about twenty paces, I caught 

 sight of a tsine looking at me through some bamboo shrubs, 

 the chest and face only visible. I immediately fired, aiming 

 for the chest with a Lee-Metford ; the tsine, on receiving the 

 shot, dashed straight at me, and I had only time to step on 

 one side ; as it was, the bamboo branches dashed aside by the 

 animal in its charge knocked my hat off. I never saw this 

 animal again, nor could I even make out if he had been hit, 

 there being no blood-spoor by which to follow. This would 

 never have happened had I been armed with a double 4 or 

 8-bore. 



Two days after the death of my last gaur I changed my 

 camp, and proceeded some five miles higher up the Thanada 

 stream. Here we struck the tracks of a herd of bison that 



1 Yet Van Hohnel shot elephants at 400 yards and two rhinoceros 

 with one shot out of a Mannlicher ! F. T. P. 



