THE TEAK REGION 211 



valley towards the interior of the hills. Our yesterday's 

 shooting had no doubt cleared this part of the hills of all 

 the bison, so we made after these deer, watching them 

 over the rising grounds and then running close in behind 

 them. At last we saw them apparently halted for the 

 day in a shady place. Two of them appeared to have 

 first-rate antlers, and we stalked round a long way to get 

 in on them from above, and without giving them our wind. 

 We blundered it, however, coming down at the wrong 

 point, and the herd broke a long way to our left hand. 

 T. fired into their backs as they struggled up the opposite 

 slope in a confused gang, but without apparent effect; 

 • and the last of them was disappearing over the brow when - 

 I took a long shot at him with my single " Express." It 

 was two hundred and fifty yards at the least, but I had 

 often before killed as far with this rifle, and down he 

 dropped. Crossing over, we found the stag lying dead; 

 but, though it was one of the two we had marked, his 

 antlers were very inferior. Nothing is more deceptive 

 than the apparent size of sambars' horns while stalking; 

 as they have all the same number of points, the guide 

 to size and quality afiorded by the branches of the red 

 deer is here wanting. On examination we found this 

 to be still another instance of the curious occurrences 

 before mentioned ; for it was T.'s ball after all that had 

 killed him, while mine had missed ! 



After this we made a long round through the hills 

 looking for bison, but without success; and were de- 

 scending towards the camp by a long narrow spur of bare 

 basalt, when we saw the Skunk near the top of an isolated 

 eminence rising out of the valley violently signalling to 

 us ; and soon after we were scanning the proportions of a 

 fine bull bison lying down on the further side under the 

 shade of a small tree. It was a very easy stalk, and we 

 crept in to about seventy yards in the grass. T. fired 

 both barrels at him as he lay, which is always a mistake, 

 the vital regions being then greatly shielded by the 

 enormous development of the shoulder and dorsal ridge. 

 He sprang up and plunged away across our front, swerving 

 round towards us in a fashion that made the Bheels take 



