98 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



the beaters came up immediately afterwards I found a fine 

 four-year-old bull lying dead, with two of his bullets 

 through the centre of his neck. All the guns now came 

 dropping in, and gathered in a group round the slain 

 bison. One had seen a bear, another a couple of sambar, 

 and so on. All had fired, and of course hit hard, but the 

 net result was the Thakur's beeve, my sambar, and two 

 little " jvmgle sheep," as they are called, the proper name 

 being the four-homed antelope.-"- 



I had never seen a bison before, and though this was 

 only a young chestnut-coloured bull with small horns, I 

 was much struck -with the bulk and expression of power 

 belonging to the animal. Such was the width of the chest 

 that when lying on the side, the upper fore-leg projected 

 stiff and straight out from the body, without any tendency 

 towards the ground. The head in particular has a fine 

 high-bred and withal solemn appearance, which is still 

 more noticeable in old bulls. From the eye of a newly 

 slain bison, turned up to the sunlight, comes such a wonder- 

 ful beam of emerald light as I have seen in the eye of no 

 other animal; and the skin emits a faint, sweet odour as 

 of herbs. 



We tracked the wounded sambar and bison a little way 

 down the valley, the former showing signs of being hard 

 hit, and a little blood was found also on the track of the 

 bull. We left a few of the best trackers to follow up their 

 trail with the next beat, and went round to take up our 

 places about a mile further down, and close to my camp 

 at Rorighat. The same process was repeated here, and 

 this time with much shouting and hammering of drums, as 

 a tiger was usually somewhere in this part of the valley, 

 and his tracks had been seen in the morning. I did not 

 get a shot on this occasion. One of the Gond Thakiirs 

 shot another sambar; and my wounded stag was found 

 and killed with their axes by the Gonds. The wounded 

 bull was in the beat, and broke near one of the Thakiir's 

 retainers, who was too astonished to fire. The rest of 

 the bison, or another herd, broke through the side of the 

 beat, and plunged down a very steep and rocky descent, 

 ^ Titraceros quaAricornis. 



