THE POETRY OF FOREST LIFE. — BISOX SHOOTING. 189 



difficulty. I never found much " sport " in shooting a bison out of 

 a herd, except in following the trail, for there is so Uttle difficulty 

 and danger connected with it that I felt no more pride in attack- 

 ing a herd of bison than I would a herd of bullocks. In fact, when 

 in a drove they seemed too much like ordinary cattle. To show 

 what tame sport bison shooting is when once the game is found, 

 I will relate the following : 



Two days after the death of the sohtary bull mentioned above, 

 we went out and found the trail of a similar individual, but just as 

 we came to the end of his trail we found he had joined a herd of 

 about fifteen others. I stalked up close to the herd, and fired 

 across a little grassy glade at a fine bull, biinging him down 

 promptly with a shot in the shoulders. Then I fired my remaining 

 barrel at another bull standing among the bamboos, eighty paces 

 distant, but he did not fall. Not feehng very murderously in- 

 clined, I leisurely reloaded my gun, the No, 8 muzzle-loader, and for 

 fully three minutes the two bison stood on the opposite side of the 

 glade, watching my movements with the stare of curiosity. "WTien 

 I was ready to fire again the herd sensed the danger and made off, 

 but having one bull I decHned to follow. 



The next day I shot a large cow, and the day following an- 

 other, making four bison bagged in five shots. I am sure we could 

 have killed a bison ever)' day for a month or more, had we been so 

 inclined ; but my fixed principle is never to kill a harmless animal 

 which I do not actually need as a specimen, or else to eat. 



Judging from my own experience with bison, I consider them 

 very timid and inoffensive animals, except under circumstances of 

 great provocation. From first to last I killed only eight, five bulls 

 and three cows, no one of which made the slightest attempt to 

 charge us. Indeed, in my bison-hunting I never took into ac- 

 count the fact that a bison could charge and make mischief; but at 

 the same time the natives of India regard the bison as a dangerous 

 animal, and many experienced English sportsmen also have a thor- 

 ough respect for him. I saw one native on the hiUs, who had been 

 attacked by a bull-bison a few years previous, and so badly mauled 

 that his left arm was almost useless. In Coimbatore I met a 

 young Englishman, Mr. Rhodes Morgan, Deputy Conservator of 

 Forests, who once had a severe taste of a bison's horns, and at my 

 request he kindly furnished me the following account of how it 

 happened : 



"It was in Jxine, 187i, when I was inspecting a low range of 



