SCENTING A GAUR 379 



ants may also be brushed against by the sportsman or some 

 of his followers, and then woe betide them, for they are 

 most unmercifully attacked and stung by these pugnacious 

 and infuriated little insects, causing painful blisters which 

 smash and irritate one all day, to say nothing of the inflam- 

 mation of minor scratches caused by the rays of the scorching 

 sun, which, staring down upon one all day with an unceasing 

 glare, well-nigh takes all the energy and spirit out of one. 



All these, reader, and many other discomforts have to be 

 reckoned with the pleasures of big-game shooting, and it is 

 only he who has a hankering after this form of sport who can 

 face the many discomforts I refer to. 



We now came upon the first resting-place of the gaur. He 

 had lain down under the shelter of a low-lying overhanging 

 bamboo bush at the top of a steep ridge, and I could see 

 from the position he had occupied that his head was pointing 

 in the direction by which we should have had to approach. 

 It is always best in the case of a wounded gaur, or tsine, to 

 let them settle down and get over their first alarm. Should 

 they be very badly wounded they will invariably lie down 

 and be too stiff and sore to rise and charge at once on the 

 approach of the sportsman. Care should also be taken not 

 to rush away in hot haste after a newly-wounded gaur or 

 tsine when in thick cover, as, after going a few yards, they 

 have often been known to turn round and stand motionless 

 by the side of the track, ready to charge down upon the first 

 person who should approach without the slightest warning. 

 It now behoved us to be careful, as we might come upon the 

 animal at any moment. I had not the least doubt now that 

 my shot had only glanced off the shoulder, and caused a 

 severe flesh wound. At any rate there was nothing to show 

 from the animal's movements that it had been badly hit. It 

 did not lie down every two or three miles, halt repeatedly, or 

 wander about in a zigzag fashion, as it would have done had 

 it been severely wounded. 



The odour of gaur now became very strong, and after 

 going up one or two very steep ridges we suddenly came 

 upon the gaur standing broadside on, under a barnboo clump, 

 whisking its tail from side to side to keep off the flies. The 



