188 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



boats down the Mutoh or Mutai river, on the banks of which 

 we slept under canvas, most of our servants remaining on 

 board with the heavy luggage. In this manner we made 

 our way nearly down to the confluence of the Mutai and 

 Dhamra, and the following morning we were out early to 

 shoot over the ground between the former river and the sea 

 as far down as the mouth of the Dhamra. 



S. senior, an old " Shikaree," and a man " good all round," 

 whether he handled the rifle, the spear, the sword, the foil, 

 or the bat, had agreed that if charged we should fire one at 

 a time, always selecting the leader. S. junior, a "new chum," 

 had the option given him to fire as he pleased, so long as 

 he did not do so before us, unless required or called upon to 

 do so. Our young comrade had a day or two before secured 

 a buffalo, " all to himself," out of a herd which we had 

 severely punished, but it was " only a little one," unworthy 

 of his bow and spear, and I fear he had only fired into the 

 brown without selecting any special point for his deadly 

 aim, trusting to luck for results ; at any rate he was greatly 

 elated, and in a very favourable state of mind to become a 

 foot-ball to the next bull he encountered. 



No buffalo appearing upon the plain on the landward 

 side of the low sand-hills which stand a short distance- above 

 high-water mark along this coast, we ascended these, and 

 from their summit descried a herd of thirty or forty grazing 

 upon the bare plain between us and the sea, and quite out 

 of even a long range from the seaward base of the hum- 

 mocks at any point, or from any cover that could be 

 discovered. 



For a long time we watched the herd, which, unconscious 

 of danger quietly cropped the coarse grass growing thinly on 

 the sandy soil. When nearly an hour had passed, two bulls 

 which had gradually approached each other as they grazed, 

 commenced fighting, after some preliminary pawing of hoofs, 

 and tossing of horns and heads ; and presently the stronger 

 drove the weaker some distance from the body of the herd 

 in the direction of our ambuscade upon the hummocks, 



