98 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



In this case the hunter was in no way to blame. 

 He had, indeed, the crudest luck it is possible 

 to imagine. The day before the accident, a 

 young assistant or a guest — I am not sure which, 

 and it really doesn't matter ; in any case, he was 

 a tyro — had wounded a bull bison which succeeded 

 in getting away, and he returned empty-handed, 

 having given Up the hunt as hopeless. Next 



morning, Mr. , the coffee-planter, who had 



accounted for many bison and was well known 

 as a good sportsman, went out himself after 

 bison, with no idea of attempting to find the 

 wounded beast, which might have gone off for 

 twenty miles for all he knew to the contrary. 

 He struck the fresh tracks of a solitary bull — 

 not the wounded animal — and was following 

 them when he heard a snort and a rush in the 

 jungle just behind him. As he was in the act 

 of turning the beast was on him, and tossed him 

 in the air, going on after the first rush. The 

 trail the sportsman had been following led, by 

 the greatest ill luck, past the cover in which the 

 wounded bull was lying up, and, hearing foot- 

 steps approaching, it had risen to its feet deter- 

 mined on revenge. A more scurvy trick for 

 Fortune to play a man than this it is hardly 

 possible to conceive. i 



Tsaing are very noiseless feeders ; much more 

 so than bison. A herd of tsaing scarcely makes 

 any sound at all. I once heard tsaing in the 



