BISON. 143 



difficult to select the bull ; but after half an hour's stalk- 

 ing, avoiding the cows, which were very suspicious, I got 

 two bullets into him as the herd stampeded. He was very 

 hard hit, and we tracked him for another hour, chiefly by 

 the blood, of which there were signs all the way ; three 

 times he started up within a few yards, but the dense 

 jungle screened him from view, and as night was 

 approaching we had to desist from pursuit and return 

 to camp. 



On the 2nd August two Carders brought news that 

 this bull was lying dead near the foot of Cooramikul 

 Mullay, a high hill, along the base of which we had been 

 following him ; they had a long story about him which I 

 could not understand beyond the fact that he was dead. 

 It was my last day at Perrincudavoo, and there was one 

 beat still untried ; so, as the Carders said they would get 

 two Mulsers to bring the head to Toonacudavoo, I deter- 

 mined not to waste the day on the dead animal. In the 

 evening Captain Barnett arrived, and I asked him to look 

 out for the bull in the course of his wanderings. He 

 did so, and found it lying at the place indicated, partly 

 devoured by a tiger. All round the spot were signs of a 

 desperate struggle, and there is no doubt that the tiger 

 scenting the blood of the wounded animal had tackled 

 him forthwith, probably when the poor beast was lying 

 down. A tiger would hardly attack an unwounded bison. 

 Barnett, who was a good and experienced shikari, said the 

 bull was the largest he had ever seen, and that his horns 

 were well over forty inches in breadth, but, owing to the 

 effluvia, he could not measure them properly. A Carder 

 brought me a creeper and a bamboo marked with the 

 breadth, both of which showed it as a little over forty-two 

 inches, but these could not be relied on. 



