TREED BY A WILD BUFFALO. 113 



forests of this region. At one time, before the 

 opening of the Bengal-Nagpore Railway, they were 

 very plentiful, and I have known seventeen head 

 fall to a single gun in the course of three weeks. 

 They are rather more difficult to get nowadays, 

 but there are still spots near to the line of railway 

 where you are sure of your buffalo during the 

 Poojas (annual native holidays in Bengal, occurring 

 generally in September or October). 



As a rule, an Express rifle is almost useless 

 against such a mountain of flesh. Weight of lead 

 tells, and I find a well-planted shot in the neck 

 most effectual, as this is about the most vulner- 

 able part of the Bubalas ami. He either drops 

 at once from a broken spinal column, or runs 

 a few hundred yards and falls with a perforated 

 wind-pipe. Some years ago I fired a whole maga- 

 zine into the shoulders and quarters of a huge 

 bull buffalo before I could get him, and then he 

 only fell from sheer loss of blood. Charun, the 

 famous Kol shikaree of Bisra, in Gangpore, put me 

 up to the neck-shot. Charun is a mute, but unlike 

 most mutes he has a very keen sense of hearing, 

 and can detect the stampede of a herd long before 

 the faintest rustle reaches ordinary ears. Although 

 over sixty years of age, he can out-walk the best 

 trackers, and seems never to tire. He was the 

 favourite shikaree of Mr. Hewett, a former Chief 

 Commissioner of Chota Nagpore, who presented 

 him with a percussion-cap smooth-bore gun, 

 of which he is very proud. With signs and 

 gestures he easily makes you understand his mean- 



8 



