34 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
have proved fatal; and, if you find nothing and are 
wise, you will return for your trackers and proceed 
warily, for a wounded panther is a terror; he can 
conceal himself in the smallest hollow or patch of 
grass, and he charges home without a premonitory 
roar such as the tiger gives, so that he is on you 
almost before you can raise rifle to shoulder. 
In the Bhinga forests surrounded by cultivation, 
a source of great interest used to be in the herds of 
wild-cattle which frequented them—the cows pure 
white with inky muzzles, and the bulls shading to 
grey on the shoulders, and with black humps, both 
beautiful animals, but untamable when caught. On 
account of the damage done to the crops on the 
border of the forest, the order went forth later for 
their removal, and as they could not be shot, by 
reason of the religious objection of the Hindu 
peasantry of the neighbourhood, many hundreds 
were caught alive by means of driving them into 
enclosures, and were then sold into a captivity which 
meant either a sudden or a lingering death. It is 
doubtful if any are now left in these forests. 
To the north of Bhinga, the headquarters of a 
Raja of that name, and connected by a good road 
with the railway-station at Bahraich, hes a camp 
called Sohelwa, in which many pleasant days may 
be spent; for the country lies in the foot-hills of 
Nepal, and from thence great simbhar stags descend 
in the early autumn to mia with the herds below, 
later again betaking themselves to their mountain 
fastnesses. The stalking of these stags is one of the 
pleasantest forms of shooting, and with a knowledge 
of the ground a few good heads can be obtained ; 
