190 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



repeatedly stalked at intervals during tliis time along with 

 natives who constantly saw them, so that I could not 

 be mistaken as to the individual; and all the time they 

 never once dropped their horns. 



One of these was a very peculiar animal, almost jet 

 black in colour, and with large horns so white as to look 

 almost like a cast pair bleached by the weather. He 

 frequented, during several years I knew him, an open 

 part of the Mona valley, a good deal resorted to by wood 

 and grass cutters. He never could be found like other 

 stags in the morning; but seemed to lie down before 

 daylight in some strategical position whence he always 

 managed to effect an escape without being seen till far 

 out of shot. I had never even fired at him though I had 

 seen him often, when very early one morning I was walking 

 over the grassy plain where he was often seen, and some 

 cart-men who were loading hay told me they had seen a 

 stag He down on the side of a hillock not far ofE. I made a 

 long circuit to get to the other side of it, and then slowly, 

 inch by inch and with beating heart, drew myself over the 

 brow. Nothing was to be seen from there, and, with finger 

 on the trigger of my Kttle single " Henry," I crawled down 

 the slope. Just then a stick crackled on my left, and 

 looking round, I saw the stag running in a crouching, 

 tiger-like fashion along the bottom of a watercourse I 

 had not noticed, but which, doubtless, had been didy 

 considered in the selection of his position. I had only 

 time for a snap shot, which caught the top of his shoulder 

 and heavily lamed him. He could go just a little faster 

 than myself after this, and had frequently to stop. But 

 he always got the start of me when I came up, and thus 

 carried me some four or five miles towards the base of 

 the hills, before a lucky shot at a very long range caught 

 him in the centre of the neck and finished the business. 



It is curious how often incidents like that one with 

 the Bori sambar occur. A beast shot in the lungs will 

 run on, particularly down-hiU, for several himdred yards 

 before he drops, though then he will generally fall stone 

 dead; and the collapse frequently occurs just when he 

 receives another woimd, though it may be a very slight 



