OXEN. 



201 



Drummond gives the following account of one such combat which he had the 

 good fortune to witness : " On looking through the edge of the last thicket which 

 concealed them I saw two buffalo bulls standing facing each other with lowered 

 heads, and, as I sat down to watch, they rushed together with all their force, 

 producing the loud crash I had before heard. Once their horns were interlocked, 

 they kept them so, their straining quarters telling that each was doing his best to 

 force the other backwards. Several long white marks on their necks showed 



SHORT-HORNED BUFFALO, SIERRA LEONE VARIETY (^ nat. Size;. 



where they had received scratches, and blood dripping down the withers of the 

 one next me proved that he had received a more severe wound. It was a 

 magnificent sight to see the enormous animals, every muscle at its fullest tension, 

 striving for the mastery. Soon one, a very large and old bull, began to yield a 

 little, going backwards step by step, but at last, as if determined to conquer or die, 

 it dropped on its knees. The other, disengaging his horns for a second, so as to 

 gain an impetus, again rushed at him, but did not strike him on the forehead, but 

 on the neck, under the hump, and I could see that with a twist of his horns he 

 inflicted a severe wound." Instead, however, of following up his advantage, this 



