VI 
THE TIGER 
195 
formed a swamp ; even at this season (April) the 
ground was splashy beneath the heavy weight of 
our advancing line. Having drawn a blank since 
we heard the shots, we now assembled at the spot, 
where we found a bull buffalo lying dead surrounded 
by the elephants and four guns. These had 
enjoyed the fusillade of twenty-one shots before 
they could extinguish the old bull, who had gallantly 
turned to bay instead of seeking safety in retreat., 
It was a glorious example of the inferiority of hollow 
Express bullets against thick-skinned animals. The 
buffalo was riddled, and many of the shots were in 
the right place, one of which behind the shoulder 
would have been certain death with a solid 650 
grains hard bullet, from a *577 rifle with 6 drams of 
powder. The buffalo, finding himself surrounded 
by elephants, had simply stood upon the defensive, 
without himself attacking, but only facing about to 
confront his numerous enemies. 
We were a very long way from camp ; we there¬ 
fore retraced our course, and having avoided some 
dense swamps that were too soft for the elephants, 
we sought harder ground, shooting several hog- 
deer on our way, and arriving in camp after sun¬ 
down, having been working for twelve hours, 
to very little purpose, considering our powerful 
equipments. 
Although we had covered a very large area 
during the day’s work, we had seen no tracks of 
rhinoceros, and so few of buffaloes that we deter¬ 
mined to abandon such uninteresting and unprofit- 
