442 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



huts to be built here ; it had not been done, of course ; so we 

 pitched our tents and had to do the work ourselves, as we had 

 no tent lascars. We were on the banks of a little rivulet with 

 deliciously cold water, in which we cooled our liquor and also 

 bathed. We made ourselves comfortable before dark, and 

 after a good dinner turned in. 



January 14. Very cold this morning a fog like a heavy 

 Scotch mist, which wetted us through, and prevented our 

 seeing more than a yard or so ahead. There were numerous 

 marks of rhinoceros about. In about an hour Sookur hit off 

 a fresh trail, and followed it like a bloodhound. These pachy- 

 derms feed in circles, and it is~ tedious following them up. 

 At last we tracked it into grass fully 20 feet high, and we had 

 not gone far when a rhinoceros grunted. My elephant stopped 

 dead, all the others bolted. Sookur hammered mine well 

 over the head and made her enter it with a rush. The pachy- 

 derm made tracks, and as it crossed a clearing I got two shots, 

 but it went into heavier grass still. I did not like following 

 it in that, as I could not see it until I came close up to it, and 

 these beasts, when they charge, rip like a boar. I hoped by 

 making sundry noises to induce it to go ahead where the 

 jungle was not quite so heavy, but it would not budge. My 

 elephant, Lutchmie, was in an awful stew, but I told Sookur to 

 force her in, which he did. Barry just then got his elephant 

 up, but Bowie's would not move to the front. As I advanced 

 the rhinoceros retreated ; I got shots as it was crossing the 

 dry bed of a nullah; it ran up the opposite bank squealing, 

 and my steed after it. The rhinoceros turned, and was in 

 the act of charging when I gave her for it turned out to be 

 a cow two more bullets which turned her, and three more 

 shots laid her low. She was a large cow, with a horn 1 3 inches 

 long, weighing i^ seers. W T e then breakfasted, and Barry not 

 being well went back to camp, and wounded a leopard en 

 route, but lost it. 



Bowie and I went on ; we soon came upon a fresh trail, and 

 came upon a cow with a half-grown calf. A lucky shot of 

 mine out of a short-barrelled rifle by Lyell of Aberdeen hit 

 her behind the ear, and rolled her over stone dead. Sookur 

 kept calling out " Shanah, shanah," and pointed towards some 



