re we made a
cardinal mistake, for we went together, whereas had one of us remained on
the grass land outside, we should almost certainly have got the bull. We,
however, omitted to take this precaution, and proceeded up the ravine to
within about fifty yards of the spot where the bull entered, when up he
got close to us, but without our being able to see him, and went out of
the ravine on to the grass land and down into the main forest beyond, into
which we had neither time, strength, nor inclination to follow him. The
preceding will be a good lesson to any young sportsman, firstly, as to the
value of not following up a wounded animal at once, and, secondly, as to
taking every kind of precaution when you do. How often is sport spoiled
from the want of appreciating the truism that a wall is no stronger than
its weakest point. The importance of carefully guarding and refusing to be
decoyed away from the pass into the main forest is of such consequence
that I proceed to enforce it with another illustration.

One day I found a fine bull grazing on the margin of a piece of detached
jungle some five or six acres in extent; I got between him and the main
forest, to which he would of course fly, fired at him, and he went at once
into the ravine, or rather jungle-clad hollow, in front of him. I then ran
to the only pass from it into the main forest, and told the two people who
were with me to follow on the track of the bull, at which I should thus
have been able to get another shot in the event of his having strength
enough to leave the five or six acres of jungle he had entered. I waited
for a considerable time, and at last went up the hill with the view of
seeing what my people were about, and called out, to be answered by one
man on the top of a hill on the other side, and by another from the top of
a tree, who said that the bison had attacked them, and that one of them
had run out of the jungle and the other up a tree. I called out to the
man on the grass land to go and fetch a dog and some people from the
village, and again returned to my pass, for had the bull once got down
into the main forest-which led to the foot of the Ghauts, we should
probably have lost him. After rather a long interval some natives appeared
with a dog, and I told them to drive the ravine, and soon there ensued a
series of charges, accompanied by the barking of the dog, and a general
state of confusion, from, which it was evident that the bison had lot