150 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



or, victor in the combat, he will follow up his success with a 

 furious pertinacity unequalled by any other beast of which I 

 have any experience. Instances have come within my own 

 knowledge of mounted hunters having been driven clean 

 out of the field, becoming the hunted in their turn ; and of 

 stalkers on foot who have failed to bring down the charging 

 bull or cow, barely escaping with their lives, sorely 

 wounded and battered. One of my acquaintances, a keen 

 hunter of tigers and buffaloes, was killed outright by a 

 wounded bull he had somewhat imprudently followed into a 

 thicket. 



Besides a remarkable ferocity, the buffalo displays a 

 mean craftiness [unworthy of his vast size and strength, in 

 concealing himself in the first heavy piece of jungle he comes 

 to in his flight, and from its shelter suddenly charging upon 

 his pursuers. Of such tactics the writer has witnessed many 

 examples, some ending seriously and others laughably. Men 

 and elephants have been frequently injured by such unex- 

 pected onslaughts, stalkers driven up into trees, and horsemen 

 pursued out of the jungle, over the open, to a considerable 

 distance ; the last, a sight however ludicrous to spectators, no 

 laughing matter to the actors in the comedy. 



Buffalo-stalking on foot, whether in the open or in covert 

 is a sport which calls for some nerve and caution ; and the 

 fact of the beast having or not having the wind is of the 

 utmost importance, because, possessing indifferent sight, they 

 trust much to scent, and on winding human enemies, they 

 will, if alarmed, take to flight, or, if savage, charge down 

 viciously. Dressed suitably as to colour, and moving cau- 

 tiously without any abrupt movements, the stalker may, with 

 the wind in his favour, approach a solitary bull within easy 

 rifle range even on the bare plain and comparatively open 

 country ; with less ease a troop of young bulls, and with less 

 still a herd, in which there are certain to be one or more on 

 watch on each side, most frequently very old cows, since the 

 master bulls seldom trouble themselves to act as sentries, but 

 feed or rest in the midst of their families. 



