AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
209 
pointer Dogs, the property of a nobleman in England, hav- 
ing left the field and returned home, because the gentle- 
man who was hunting with them, being a stranger, and 
having missed the three first shots at birds which they had 
found and pointed for him. And it is here worthy to re- 
mark, that good dogs will uniformly act in concert with 
good shots, and become indifferent in performing their 
duty, in proportion to the inferiority of the master they 
are serving. 
There was, perhaps, no Dog superior to this for find- 
ing and bringing shot game; he could be directed any 
course you wished by simply throwing a stone, and he 
seldom returned without the object he was sent for, even 
in the most difficult, and, to the sportsman, inaccessible 
places; such as swamps, marshes, briers, and swimming 
broad streams, &c., and I knew him once to swim into a 
mill pond 150 yards and bring to land a duck, from the 
midst of an innumerable quantity of stumps and dead tree 
tops. 
This remarkable Dog was taken from my yard about 
two years since by an acquaintance, who was going after 
woodcock, whilst I was absent from the city, and was 
lost by him the same evening, since which period he has 
not been heard of — it is supposed he fell a sacrifice to our 
dog laws, then in force, or was stolen — the former, how- 
ever, is the most probable. D. 
HUNTING BUFFALO. 
One morning a whole train of elephants, taking up 
two lines, entered one of the heaviest jungles in the coun- 
try. Hospitius, Cambius, and Shawzada, mounting 
their steadiest horses, posted themselves on the outskirts, 
prepared to attack those Buffaloes which might take to 
the plains; but the spear was resigned for the stout double- 
barrelled gun, charged with tin balls: the remaining sports- 
men, placing more dependence on the lofty back of the 
elephant than on the velocity and activity of the horse in 
the approaching chase, sate secure in their howdars ,* en- 
circled with guns, and, leading the line, entered the almost 
impervious high grass. At a given signal the Mahouts, 
or elephant-drivers, urged those sagacious animals through 
the opposing thickets: erecting their trunks almost per- 
pendicularly, for the purpose, probably, of guarding this 
most sensitive member from the sudden attack of some 
concealed ferocious animal — the tiger, or the more for- 
midable rhinoceros — they urged their way with slow re- 
sistless footsteps through the strong jungles, every now 
* Huvjdur, a covered wooden tower, placed on the elephant’s back. 
Gog 
and then raising a shrill trumpeting, which became louder 
as difficulties occurred, and in which they strove to outvie 
each other. Beneath the feet of a hundred elephants the 
stoutest branches crackled; the snapping sounds reverbe- 
rated through the hollow woods; and their wild screams 
arose above the tumultuous din of horns and the deep 
music of the human voice; while every now and then the 
animals would playfully strike the high waving tops of 
the lofty jungle with their pliant trunks, and besprinkle 
the faces of their riders with the early morning dew, 
brushed off from the gracefully bent bearded heads of the 
silky grass. The constant dropping shots which were 
heard at intervals denoted to the skirting and adventurous 
horsemen the progress of the party through the deeper 
recesses of the forest, till at length one rending shout, and 
the quick and incessant firing, announced that they had 
come upon a herd of wild Buffaloes. 
After the lapse of a few minutes the whole herd rushed 
forth in one black, condensed, formidable body, some 
bleeding, others, though mortally wounded, yet strug- 
gling on in their last agonies till the death-pang overtook 
them, and, falling slowly on their knees, they sank ma- 
jestically to rise no more. One, with blood-shot eyes and 
wrinkled front, stood alone on an elevated knoll, with 
lowering head and spreading horns, pawing up furiously 
the verdant turf: he was one, who, long the favourite of 
the fickle female train, had been lately ejected from the 
herd by caprice, or some stronger rival: his spirit brooded 
over his wrongs, and he stood reckless, prepared despe- 
rately to charge any moving thing which should come 
within his reach: he had long been the terror of the sur- 
rounding country. 
The cheering voice of Cambius urged the attack, and, 
circling round in rapid career, he discharged a shot, which 
only raised the skin and farther excited the fury of the 
Buffalo, who rushed towards the bold horseman with sense- 
less rage. The white foam flew over his head, and fell 
like snow-flakes upon his black skin; but the speed of 
Feridoon upon this occasion, and the prompt assistance of 
Hospitius and Shawzada, saved the life of Cambius: for 
while the Buffalo, intent upon the destruction of the lat- 
ter, continued his desperate course, they rode up and 
wounded him severely; and, at the same time, one of the 
stoutest elephants came up with Idem and Dubiosus to the 
support of their friends. The Buffalo prepared for the en- 
counter with determined energy: he lashed his tail, stamp- 
ed up the ground, and the plain resounded with his deep 
bellowings, which seemed to invite the combat. The 
shrill trumpeting of the elephant answered the summons; 
while crowds of affrighted ryots, or cultivators, perched 
on adjacent trees, watched with alarm the progress of the 
