SKELETONIZING AN ELEPHANT. 169 



vertical height at the shoulder, the length of head and body is from 

 six to seven feet, and the tail twelve inches. Its body color varies 

 from dark brown to slaty gray, according to the season and local- 

 ity, the under parts are pale pinkish yellow, and ujDon the oldest 

 stags the hair is long upon the throat and neck, forming a bristly 

 mane. 



The horns have but three points, a stout, thick brow-antler 

 springing forward directly from the base or burr of the horn, and 

 the beam is bifurcated near its extremity, sometimes the inner and 

 sometimes the outer tine being the longer. The horns of adult 

 stags average thirty-six inches in length, although they often far 

 exceed that size. Mr, Dawson, of Ootacamund, showed me a splen- 

 did pair which measured forty-four inches from base to tip. 



I cannot caU the sambur a handsome animal by any means. 

 Certainly a stag without its hoi-ns is the homeliest deer I ever saw, 

 and as one rushed heavily away from me in the forest it always re- 

 minded me of a mulley cow. The body is heavy, the hair thin and 

 coarse, and, to judge from the amount of noise made by a running 

 sambur, it struck me as being a heavy-going and leather clumsj' 

 animal. 



• When lying down or standing motionless against a bamboo 

 clump, a sambur is very dilficult to see, at least for my eyes. I 

 once afforded my men a ludicrous and aggravating illustration of 

 this fact. I found that the eyes of my Mulcers diffei-ed from mine 

 in their being able to pierce through underbrush and make out an 

 object which I could scarcely see at all, even when pointed out. On 

 the other hand, I could detect a moving object, even were the mo- 

 tion ever so slight, just as quickly as any of them, and a Httle quicker 

 than even Vera, as was several times fairly proven. 



One day we were hunting through the bamboo forest for what- 

 ever game we could find, when Vera stopped, uttered his low game 

 signal, " tut-tut-tut," and pointed into a low thicket fifty yards away. 

 He said it was a sambur. I looked intently, made up my mind I 

 saw it, and blazed away. The object I fired at did not move. Vera 

 said, " It is there yet, sahib ! " and I fired again at what I thought 

 was it. The same result as before. The sambur did not run. I 

 fired two more shots at an imaginary deer, and the men began to 

 laugh at me. I was disgusted with myself, and exclaimed, "Blast 

 my eyes ! " with far more fervency than any sailor. 



Presently a twig moved, I saw the sambur and my fifth bullet 

 struck it, but not quite fatally. It rushed out of the thicket, ran a 



