48 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
much curve, and sharp at the points. The hair of 
the body is short and smooth, like an English cow 
in summer condition, and the dewlap is soft and 
large. The tail is long, with a black tuft of hair at 
the extremity. 
Like all the Bos tribe, the bull is savage when 
provoked. My nephew, Commander Julian A. 
Baker, R.N., nearly lost his life in an encounter with 
one of these animals. He was at that time in 
command of the Foam on the West Coast of Africa, 
and he had landed at some convenient spot, from 
which he strolled inland, accompanied by a faithful 
Kruman as a shikari : this man carried a spare rifle. 
They had not gone far when he observed a bull 
grazing in a narrow glade, and upon firing within 
i oo yards, the animal fell, and blundered into a 
small bush. Being rather excited with the novelty 
of a strange species, he ran up to the place where 
the bull had fallen ; but no sooner had he reached 
the spot than the beast that he had supposed to be 
dead, or dying, charged furiously at him from the 
impervious cover which had sheltered it. His rifle 
missed fire, and in another moment the bull thrust 
one horn into his thigh, and lifted him off the ground. 
He was in this manner thrown upwards, and found 
himself fixed securely upon the animal’s head. 
Fortunately he was well practised at acrobatic feats, 
and in this dilemma he managed to hold on to one 
horn, and to disengage his perforated thigh from the 
other, falling to the ground the instant that his leg 
was released ; but he never relaxed his hold of the 
