XV 
AMERICAN BUFFALO 
85 
the driest season to the jungles, when it is far easier 
to discover the desired game. 
As I have never experienced the gaur personally, 
I cannot enter into the details of its habits. It has 
decreased in numbers in the Central Provinces, not 
only from the annual destruction by the rifle, but 
from epidemics, to which all members of the bovine 
family are peculiarly liable. I remember about forty 
years ago, when in the northern portion of Ceylon, 
the stench was unbearable in certain places, where 
both wild and tame buffaloes had died in hundreds. 
A few years since, the district of Reipore was visited 
with a similar calamity, which destroyed the gaur in 
such numbers that some localities were left entirely 
deprived of these animals. 
The gaur is supposed to be the largest of the Bos 
tribe, measuring 17 to 18 hands in the height of 
shoulder. The head is enormous, with a peculiar 
formation of the frontal bone,, which projects above 
the cranium. A bullet must therefore be placed 
lower than it would be in an ordinary ox to reach the 
the brain. 
This grand animal is generally to be found among 
hills that are covered with forest, in which the bamboo 
is plentiful, as the latter is the principal food of the 
gaur. In the winter months, when I have generally 
visited India, such jungles are so dense and green 
that they are almost impenetrable. At that season 
there is water in every channel, and torrent-beds at 
the foot of hilly ranges ; therefore it is impossible to 
find the gaur, which is then upon the summits, 
