BAG A FINE BULL 375 



and, aiming for the shoulder, fired. The bull on receiving the 

 shot dashed off down the side of the ridge at a great pace, 

 but collapsed stone dead against a bamboo clump with a 

 tremendous crash a hundred yards or so off. It was very 

 gratifying to think that I had succeeded after all in bagging 

 this animal. He was a very fine bull, standing nineteen 

 hands to the shoulder, and had a very good pair of horns. 

 On my return to camp I was obliged to send my boy or cook 

 back for medical treatment for jaundice, liver, and a hundred 

 other ailments, which deprived me of decent food for nearly 

 a month. I was consequently laid low with jungle fever for 

 two or three days, but succeeded in pulling through, and was 

 on my legs again none the worse. 



A short time after my recovery, and a few months before I 

 sailed for Europe, I bagged my last and record bison after 

 some very hard work. This animal gave me more walking 

 than ever I have had from any animals, elephants included. 



One day in October I was on my way to the Military Police 

 Post, " Chaungyi," which, situated on a stream of the same 

 name, divides on that side Singa from the Ruby Mines 

 district, when a Shan trader met me and said he had seen 

 the large tracks of a bison across the pathway some three 

 miles on. I proceeded to the spot at once, and saw from the 

 tracks that the owner must be a magnificent animal. I also 

 noticed that after taking them on for a couple of hundred 

 yards, several good-sized saplings the knocking down of 

 which would really have done credit to an elephant had 

 been butted down by the gaur en route. This astonished me 

 very much, as I had never seen an instance before of gaur 

 uprooting trees with their horns. The beast at intervals 

 seemed to be in an infuriated state, as the ground was pawed 

 up and the bark on the trunks of several large trees had been 

 scored and bruised. 



The tracks, on a closer examination, did not look as if the 

 animal had passed that day, and I was inclined to think that 

 he had crossed the previous day early in the morning. It was 

 now about 9.30 a.m. I had quite made up my mind to take 

 on the tracks till we came up with the owner, even though we 

 should have to follow him up for two or three days. We 



