SHOOT A GOOD BULL RHINOCEROS 445 



commotion in the grass ahead, so I fired, and by the worst 

 luck possible brought the animal down, which proved to be 

 the calf! Sookur meant me not to fire; I thought it was 

 something unusual and that he wanted me to kill it ! These 

 calves are easily caught after the death of the mother, as they 

 won't leave the body, and are worth from 80 to 100 each. 

 Bowie's elephant behaved very badly ; she is generally staunch, 

 but her mahout is away, and she was being driven by her 

 grass-cutter, in whom she had no confidence. We got back 

 to the tents soon after twelve, and in the evening shot some 

 florikan. 



January 15. I lent my elephant and Sookur to Bowie, as 

 I did not want to keep all the sport to myself. I visited the 

 Boorie Nuddie and, searching about, soon found a lot of lime- 

 stone, which was much wanted for conversion into lime for 

 our public works. I saw a lot of marsh or swamp deer to-day, 

 but all does ; the bucks were in hiding, having shed their 

 horns, and the new ones not having formed. I followed a 

 rhinoceros, but my steed would not go up to it. Bowie joined 

 me later on ; he had wounded and lost a huge bull rhinoceros. 

 We shot some florikan. 



The next morning Barry was too ill to go out. So Bowie 

 and I went together, and almost in sight of our tents we came 

 upon a very large rhinoceros in shortish grass. I hit it twice 

 and Bowie once. It ran in circles, and at last stood at bay in 

 the open. My elephant at first refused to go up, but Sookur 

 very forcibly made her do it, and with a few more shots I 

 killed one of the finest rhinoceros I ever got. It had a horn 

 1 3 inches long, weighing 2 seers or 4 Ibs. I eventually gave 

 it to Colonel Dillon, secretary to Lord Napier when he was 

 Commander-in-Chief of India. 



Shortly after finishing off this beast, Sookur took up the 

 tracks of two others ; the way he followed them was an art in 

 itself. It was not till fully an hour and a half that we came 

 upon them. Bowie killed the larger with a ball, out of a 

 smooth-bore, behind the ear ; the other charged me savagely, 

 but she had no chance ; and no sooner was the life out of them 

 than the Assamese swarmed like so many vultures, fighting 

 with each other for the tid-bits. They never leave a scrap on 



