238 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



death man or beast with great ease and pleasure. The 

 natives dread them much, and keep at a respectful dis- 

 tance, and climb up into trees at the shortest notice. 

 My first introduction to buffaloes was when camped at 

 Sunari. I had returned from surveying. It was just 

 getting dark, and I was bathing and changing my khaki- 

 coloured jungle clothing for the warmer evening suit, 

 which was specially padded to keep out the chills of the 

 Terai nightfall, when a chaprasi came breathless to the 

 tent door, saying, ' Arna, arna, sahib P I rushed out half 

 clad, with a 12-bore rifle loaded with round bullets, and 

 ran in the direction pointed out. I could see the great 

 black forms of five or six big beasts with gigantic upright 

 horns, quietly walking from the plain towards the jungle 

 a short distance off. I ran towards some trees to cut them 

 off, and, hiding behind a big stem, waited their arrival. 

 As they passed about 60 yards off I fired two shots at 

 the biggest bull, which appeared to strike him in the neck 

 or shoulder ; but the result was that they only hastened 

 their pace a bit, and lumbered off into the forest, the big 

 brute seeming to care absolutely nothing. The old 

 sarbarakhar was in the greatest excitement and fear lest 

 they should charge our tents. We heard no more about 

 them, and, examining the ground, there were no signs of 

 blood or marks of wounding. The skin of these great 

 beasts is so thick, as I afterwards discovered, that a 

 bullet will not always go through it, and if it strikes a 

 bone it will glance off rather than smash the bone, unless 

 the charge of powder is extra strong. I took to using 

 7 drachms of black powder instead of 3, which was the 

 ordinary charge, and substituted a conical bullet for a 

 round in the 12-bore. I tried also a single-barrelled 

 4-grooved 8-bore rifle, with 8 drachms of powder and 

 a round belted bullet. The kick from these charges was 

 pretty severe. 



