BISON. 125 



diffidence. They soon came to a check, and, after ten 

 minutes' search, asked me to help them, probably to test 

 me. I made a wide cast outside the ground they had been 

 over, and hit it off ; this had a good effect. The art of 

 tracking has always been most fascinating to me from 

 the time I was twelve years old, and accompanied the 

 keeper on his daily rounds when home for the holidays. 

 At length, after two hours tracking, a cow bison, suddenly 

 starting up in front, dashed away over a nullah full of long 

 grass, at the opposite side of which a thick bamboo jungle 

 hid everything from view, but we could hear the rest of 

 the herd moving about in it some fifty yards ahead. 

 Presently Atlay motioned to me to kneel down, as he 

 pointed to a clump of bamboos in front. In vain I 

 looked ; nothing was to be seen but foliage ; immediately 

 afterwards a huge bull appeared for a second, round the 

 edge of the clump, but before I could get the sights on 

 him he snorted loudly, turned about, and crashed off 

 through the thicket, followed by the rest of the herd. 

 The noise they made as they dashed away through the 

 jungle was prodigious, something like a cavalry charge, 

 accompanied by a succession of rifle shots, caused by the 

 breaking of bamboos. We followed the tracks for a mile 

 before sighting them again, in the same class of jungle- 

 bamboos through which we could only get fleeting 

 glimpses as they moved about between the clumps. 

 Another hour passed in this way, when, my patience being 

 exhausted, I took a snap shot at one ; this was followed 

 by another stampede of the herd, which thundered off 

 through the forest in the usual way. I heard my shot 

 tell, and in a short time, when following them up, we came 

 to a spot where the wounded one had evidently halted, 

 the ground being covered with blood ; from here the 



