240 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



I could hear the crash, and the charge was just stopped in 

 time to avoid a colhsion. My friend had got a smash on 

 his old skull that he didn't expect ; for his courage failed, 

 and he turned tail for the jungle, shaking his head and 

 grunting. I gave him a couple of 12-bore bullets in the 

 stem, which hurried his pace ; and he disappeared pretty 

 quickly into thick jungle, where I failed to track him 

 through the thicket. Some days afterwards he was found 

 dead by the natives five miles away, and very pleased they 

 were that the country was rid of him. I got his horns, 

 enormously heavy ones, 



I frequently got a shot at a lovely buck chital when the 

 herds came out at evening or early morn to graze on the 

 plain, where the young green grass was springing from 

 the old burnt roots. At night the silence of the forest 

 was at times wakened by the loud and sonorous belling 

 of these pretty deer. It seemed a sin to shoot them, 

 but venison was much wanted. Walking silently along 

 the edge of the timber, one might see against the sunset 

 sky the graceful forms of some does feeding, which I 

 would not shoot at. Presently a spotted stag, with his 

 long slender horns thrown up, might be viewed standing 

 in a gap between the brushwood, watching the does and 

 giving a chance of a shot at 130 yards. I had a Jacob 

 rifle, 24-bore, with four grooves and a conical bullet, 

 hollowed in front, which was very true at this range. I 

 could generally put it in behind the shoulder if I got a 

 fair chance, and the bullet, opening, made a deadly wound, 

 so that the poor beast did not get away to linger and die 

 in the jungle, but fell in his tracks, and was made into 

 excellent venison stew or roasted over a bright wood fire. 

 This rifle was one of the first of the small-bore conical 

 projectile weapons, which have now been brought to the 

 height of perfection in the Lee-Metford service rifle. To 



