246 INDIAN OK DOMESTIC BDFFALO. 
those of India, except such as are chosen for the 
combat, and stand from four to five feet high at the 
shoulder.* The wild animal is of larger propor- 
tions. We are indebted to Colonel Williamson for 
interesting information regarding both the tame and 
the wild states, which we shall here make use of. 
The Indian buffalo delights in water, so much so 
that burdens have to be most carefully attended to 
in travelling, the animals most probably being in- 
clined to lie or roll themselves in the first swamp or 
water they meet with. No place seems to delight 
them more than the deep verdure on the confines of 
pools and marshes, especially if surrounded by tall 
grass, so as to afford concealment and shade while 
the body is covered by the water. In such situa- 
tions they appear to enjoy a perfect ecstasy, having 
in general nothing above the surface but their eyes 
and nostrils, the horns being kept low down, and 
consequently out of sight. Frequently nothitig is 
perceptible but a few black lumps in the waters, ap- 
pearing like small clods, and a passenger would 
scarcely expect to see, as often happens, twenty or 
thirty great beasts suddetdy rise. The banks of the 
Ganges and Cozzimbazar Island have long been 
favourite haunts of the wild buffalo. They are 
* Major Smith is in doubt whether or not the Arneo of 
India may be the stock from which the domestic races of 
Buffaloes have sprung ; and in Colonel Williamson’s Field 
Sports, the True Arnee is sometimes confounded w'ith the 
Buffalo . — See Arnee, p. 241. 
