GAME ANIMALS OF KASHMIR. 
877 
within a few feet, then a loud explosion, and the bear fell back. An old shikari 
“ Gunga ” had slain the bear with the 12 bore gun whilst it was almost on us. 
Gnnga afterwards explained that he had seen the bear coming along the very 
narrow path which led to the post and had put ball into the gun ; then the bear's 
head reached the rock and no time was to bo spared. The bear probably was 
quite peaceful and only wanted to get away from the noise, and finding the 
track in the bushes had come along it. 
Those goral drives were pleasant days but the old friend is gone and his 
son reigneth in his stead. 
On a different occasion the afternoon was far advanced, a goral had been shot 
and despatched to the Camp, which was pitched about two miles away in an 
open glade amongst the outside hills which border on the plain, when 
another goral was seen, not in the valley where the first was shot but on a hill 
further from the road. There was no difficulty in getting at it nor in wounding 
it, but an hour or so was lost in following up and finally killing it. Then the 
light failed, there was nothing for it but to make a bee line for th“ plain, for the 
valley in which the road and camp lay could only be reached by climbing over 
a very difficult ridge, and this was not to be thought of in the dark. 
The small ravine down which the return had to be made was bound to reach 
the firohne at the foot of the hills, and once on the broad line, the rest was 
easy. 
The distance could not have been more than 2^ miles, but it was midnight 
before Camp was reached. There were no waterfalls, the bed of the little stream 
in daylight would have presented no obstacles, but at night every yard ahead 
had to be prodded with a stick. In high grass close to the fireline a wild 
beast of some kind or other growled and caused the coolies to drop the goral 
and bolt. Nothing would induce them to go back. Curious people, they had 
managed to get along very well carrying the goral with apparent ease, and all 
the time probably thinking why on earth the track was found so difficult and 
why everyone could not see as well as they could, and yet the growl was 
too much for them and they lost their goral, for by morning it had been eaten 
by jackals. 
No. 355.— THE NILG.^I ANTELOPE. 
The blue bull is held sacred in Jammu and many can be seen from the Railway 
carriage on the journey from Sialkot to Tawi Station. There are now prac- 
tically no other animals in the Jammu Game Reserves, and as the damage 
done by Nilgai in the crops is great it must be intensely aggravating to have 
to try and raise your food in fields alongside of herds of. Nilgai which are 
protected. In Kumaon it was bad enough, for the Nilgai are wonderful 
jumpers and used to clear a 6 foot high fence with eas’. However by shooting 
them down as opportunity occurred, male, female and young, the numbers were 
kept in check. It was understood that anyone who got leave to shoot in the 
jungles should help to diminish the number of this destructive Antelope in the 
Kumaon Forests. 
The meat of an old Blue Bull is very tough. Even the Mahouts do not care 
much about it, but they are very keen on getting the skins both for leather and 
also for selling as gigantic mussacks. These mussacks or inflated skins are used 
for carrying rafts, and stand a groat deal of bumping against rocks, which 
they certainly get in many of the rapids when the main livers leave the 
hills. 
As the Nilgai is a heavily made animal of nearly 14 hands in height, at- 
tempts are made in some places to tame them for draught, and they 
are generally used with a bullock as one of the pair. Not much success has 
attended this experiment. 
