ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 41 



Breaking out some stout dead bamboos, we jumped on 

 them till they were in splinters from end to end, and suitable 

 for torches, and then, striking a light, we raked up some dead 

 leaves and made a fire. While engaged at this work, I was 

 bending over the flame, when my powder-flask fell from an 

 inner breast-pocket and dropped into the blaze. My first im- 

 pulse was to bolt, but I was a long way from home and had 

 no other flask, so I launched a desperate kick into the burn- 

 ing mass. I caught the flask on the toe of my boot, and sent 

 it spinning right into Emaum's face. He was some yards off, 

 and was not a little astonished, though not much hurt. We 

 then lit our bamboo torches, and, walking across the wind, 

 poked them into the leaves at intervals of ten yards. In half 

 an hour the whole jungle was a sheet of flame, and, satisfied 

 with our afternoon's work we started oif home. 



In the jungle, a few miles from the bungalow, was a very 

 pretty lake, to which we occasionally went to spend the day, 

 stalking morning and evening on the way. Going to one of 

 these pic-nics, I came on a herd of bison, and got a fair broad- 

 side shot at a fine young bull. I heard the shot tell, but he 

 dashed off and disappeared. Emaum was sulky, and taxed 

 me with having fired too soon, but I made him take up the 

 track, and, finding blood, he recovered his temper. 



.After going some distance, as we crossed a small dry 

 watercourse at the foot of a hill in the jungle, we saw the 

 bull standing above us, eighty yards off. He was evidently 

 distressed, but we could not tell where he was hit. Presently 

 he gave a good broadside shot, and, kneeling behind a fallen 

 tree, I fired. He staggered, and then we saw one of his fore- 

 legs was disabled. 



Whether he tried to come at us, or whether he was un- 

 able to run in any other direction, I cannot say ; but he came 



