THE WAIiSrAAD FOREST. 113 



v>-e could reach some shelter before midnight, at all events. Fifteen 

 minutes later it was pitch-dark, and I can scarcely remember a 

 night of more intense darkness. I could not see my companion 

 two paces in front of me. Fortunately the road passed near our 

 camp, which we succeeded in reaching about ten o'clock, to the sur- 

 prise of eyery one, for we had long since been given up for lost, and 

 the people were speculating calmly on ovir probable fate." 



The next day we went back and found our sambur untouched, 

 and I removed and preserved the skin, while the Kurumbers eagerly 

 appropriated the flesh. Very soon after this my friend and his gun- 

 bearer, Dena, succeeded in killing a fine bull bison, and as they 

 wanted only the skin, I was allowed to take the skeleton, all except 

 the skull, which the "Lefteuant" proposed to keep as a trophy. 

 But he was a thrifty lad, and afterward sold me the skull for four 

 rupees, which made my specimen complete. Ha%dng come wretch- 

 edly provisioned and equipped for such a trip, he soon abandoned 

 his entei-prise, which was to shoot bison for their skins and heads, 

 and returned to Ooty, leaving me alone. I was not sorrj' when I 

 found, immediately after his departure, that the chief reason why the 

 Kurumbers were so backward about assisting us was, because my 

 friend had neglected to pay a number of them for services rendered 

 during a previous visit. He was a queer character, to say the least. 

 One day he said to me, "I believe you have been having a war 

 over in the United States, between the North and South. Is it over 

 now?" "Yes." "Well, which side whipped?" This question 

 from a man who had but a short time previously held a commission 

 as a "Leftenant in the — th Lancers," was rather a stunner tome. 



I find that, in nearly all cases, I have to see a new animal two or 

 three times and get somewhat acquainted with it before I can be at 

 all sure of bringing it down. Especially is this the case with large 

 game, and with very strange species I am not discouraged if I make 

 two or three flat failures before bringing down a single specimen. 

 After I succeed in killing my first one of any kind, I ask no odds of 

 the rest. Should my reader be an old sportsman, I beg him to re- 

 member all along that these are but the adventures of a " griffin," 

 who, until coming to India to hunt elephants, tigers, and bison, had 

 never shot even an elk or bufialo ; and his fire-arms, for large 

 game, were such as no genuine " old shikaree " would accept as a 

 gift. 



The death of my first bison occurred as follows : 



"June 6, 1877. — Went out this morning accompanied by 

 8 



