THE GAUR 59 



tracks. I have frequently tried this game, and 

 have never yet found it to pay. Nature will 

 have her due, and if you rise early and work hard 

 up to 11 a.m., or a little later, you are tired out, 

 and unfitted for a further trudge of several hours 

 under a hot sun, with the practical certainty of 

 a long trek when the looked-for tracks are at 

 last discovered, if they ever are. You may 

 halt for possibly an hour, and will rise refreshed ; 

 but your tired limbs, and feet especially, require 

 a longer rest, and uncompromisingly announce 

 the fact. Your trackers, too, are tired and 

 dispirited, and are simply longing for the order 

 for ' Home, sweet home.' It is quite a different 

 story when you are on fresh tracks, with every 

 prospect of coming up with the animal before 

 dark. Excitement, or rather expectation, keeps 

 you going, and fatigue is not felt. However, 

 everyone to his taste, or there would be no 

 choice in fancy waistcoats. Personally, if by 

 11 a.m. I have not succeeded in finding either 

 fresh tracks or those of the previous day, I turn 

 my face campwards. 



As regards the best time of year to hunt 

 bison and tsaing, I think there can be no two 

 opinions. The latter end of May and the whole 

 of June is, I conceive, the time of year. The 

 undergrowth has not had time to grow to any 

 great height, while the first showers of the mon- 

 soon keep the ground soft for tracking. Some 



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