136 EISON. 



undergrowth, where, tracking being out of the question, 

 we had to give him up. 



A few days after this occurrence I was out in the 

 Annagoondy direction, and hit off the rather stale trail of 

 a herd about noon. This we followed for the best part of 

 ten miles, and I got an easy shot at the bull just before 

 dusk. He went down on the spot apparently dead. 

 Thinking he was done for, I tried to stalk the herd again, 

 as they had halted within fifty yards, being evidently 

 unwilling to leave their leader in the lurch ; but, seeing 

 nothing but cows, I soon returned, and was amazed to see 

 my quondam defunct friend going away very groggily 

 with a wound close behind the off shoulder, and, as he was 

 near side towards me when I fired, the steel tip must have 

 gone clean through his body, probably missing the ribs. 

 He got into some very thick stuff, where we left him lying 

 down in an impenetrable maze of seega-kye (wait a bit 

 thorn, a species of acacia), which he could not leave, nor 

 could I get a glimpse of him. We were again baffled, but 

 eventually found his remains near this spot on the 12th 

 August, after a lapse of twenty-five days. 



All the shikaries and coolies had been given extra 

 rations of arrack and two goats to celebrate a good day's 

 sport, but the feasting that ensued completely stopped my 

 shooting for two days ; my two servants had also joined 

 the revellers, and had thereby neglected their work, so on 

 the 12th July, as the Carders had not yet recovered the 

 effects of the saturnalia, I took them for a day in the 

 forest to smarten them up, starting about 9 a.m. for 

 Shungum, three miles to the south, where the Government 

 elephants were kept. Here I obtained a half-witted 

 elephant cooly to take me to the Currian Sholah a 

 famous haunt for bison. On the way we struck a fresh 



