396 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



had passed clean through the tsine. I found it to be a most 

 effective weapon upon both tsine and gaur. 



On glancing through my diaries, I notice that there are a 

 good many entries such as : " Came upon a herd of tsine to- 

 day, did not fire at them, as I was following up the tracks of a 

 solitary bull ; " or " Saw two herds of tsine to-day, but did not 

 shoot, as there were no animals amongst them with heads 

 worth having and I am not in want of fresh meat." Other 

 entries often occurred such as : " Saw two solitary bull tsine 

 to-day, but failed to get a shot at either, as they winded me 

 and made off; " or " Came upon fresh tracks of a solitary bull 

 tsine this afternoon,; but failed to come up with the owner 

 before dark." A few entries such as : " Fired at and wounded 

 a solitary bull tsine to-day, and had a long stern chase but 

 did not succeed in bagging him," may also be seen occasion- 

 ally. It is not necessary to slaughter every animal that one 

 comes across simply for the sake of shooting. I cannot repeat 

 too often that the man who does so is no sportsman, but an 

 itinerant butcher. 



I found the '303 Lee-Metford carbine quite ineffective upon 

 tsine, and when using it I lost a great many more animals 

 than I bagged. 



On one occasion I came upon a herd of tsine, numbering, I 

 should think, some twenty-five to thirty animals in all. So 

 tame were they, that they allowed me to come up and fire at 

 them no less than half-a-dozen times within the space of five 

 minutes. My shots, whether aimed too high or too low, did 

 not seem to have the desired effect, and the animals trotted 

 away a short distance and, after each shot, turned round to 

 stare at me, wondering, I have no doubt, what the sharp short 

 reports could mean. But, what was still worse, there were no 

 blood-drops by which I could follow up any wounded animal. 



My hands were not perhaps as steady as they might have 

 been, as I had to make several short spurts of 50 and 100 

 yards on two or three occasions to make up on the animals 

 before firing, a necessity not at all conducive to good shooting. 



One animal certainly did fall as if dead; I passed it lying 

 on the ground as I sprinted to try and cut off the rest of 

 the herd, but found, much to my surprise, on my return to 



