SPORTING IN ASSAM.
Alluding to that part of the country induces me to insert extracts from some letters dated from Goalparah, giving an account of buffalo shooting and sporting in that part of the country.
“This letter is taken up with Shikār in obedience to your wishes. You have at heart a large share of the hunting principle, supposed to characterize mankind in a wild state. I have seen you in your excursion at Gaur, very anxious where the covert had a likely look, and so attentive when the game was started as not to be conscious of the thunder and lightning of the pestilent gun, which is such an object of horror in your hours of ease. I recall these recollections as an excuse to myself for making a long story of a late shooting excursion.
“In the dawn of last Friday morning nine buffaloes were discovered in the river making for our hill, two were killed in the water by villagers in boats, and three on shore by the men of the detachment; the remaining four took to the conical rising ground, at the southern extremity of our ridge, which is uninhabited, and covered with low tree and shrub jungle; a few trees a little larger rise through this undergrowth, and form the pathway that surrounds the cone, the finest peepul I have ever seen. This pathway branches off at the point, where the cone, or rather the detached hill, begins to rise from the main ridge, going entirely round it at the height of about four hundred feet above the level of the river. My havaldar, who took upon himself the ordering of the hunt, sent five men with muskets round by the left to establish themselves in the high trees that look into the jungle supposed to contain the buffaloes. A Mr. F⸺ and myself, with three or four sepoys and the havaldar, all with guns, proceeded by the right to some rocks, where, in perfect safety, we commanded the road, at the back of the hill, by which it was expected the buffaloes would arrive when dislodged by the left-hand party. After some time in this post, in a hot sun,—it was a clear day, and 2 P.M.,—we heard a shot from the party on the other side of the hill; and then, after an interval, two more; we looked eagerly for the buffaloes along the pathway, but still they did not come; and Mr. F⸺ getting tired, descended from our place of safety on the rocks, and proposed going round to where the shots were fired. As it was possible that the men in the trees might mistake us for buffaloes, I told a sepoy to call out that we were coming. I advanced a little way and saw two, one large, the other a calf; they were standing, and about to turn to go away. I aimed my large gun at the head of the calf and fired, without effect; I turned round to exchange my large gun for the double barrel that was loaded, when I found that, except my orderly, who only carried powder and ball, and the havaldar who was a little way beyond him, every one had fled. The havaldar passed on the call for my double gun, and the man who held it put it into my hand in time; for the two buffaloes I had seen, either irritated by my dogs, or alarmed by the party in their rear, made a dash down the road, the large one leading, with its head at the charge near the ground, and snorting at the dogs that were flying before it. When I changed my gun the head brute was not eight feet from me: firing both barrels in a hurry and flurry, I jumped down to the right into the jungle; it was the affair of a moment, and my dexterity in escape, like Falstaff’s at Gads-hill, was upon instinct. When I looked along the road in the line of the charge, I perceived it was completely cleared; all within sight had made the same jump as myself—the orderly, a little behind me, the havaldar about ten yards further back; the former had a loaded gun, and told me afterwards, that he had not fired because my sacred person happened to be in a line with the buffaloes,—a civility for which I felt thankful. The men from the trees had killed an old buffalo, which I found lying across the road, another still remained in the jungle near the top of the conical hill. I began to ascend through wet shrubs and over slippery ground; when half-way up I was joined by Mr. F⸺, who said he had run for our post on the rock the instant he heard the buffaloes, and only gained it just in time to see them pass by: blood was flowing from the shoulder of the leading one; he himself fired without any effect. We now gained the top of the hill on which there is an open spot, overgrown with a coarse jungle grass used in thatching; a small house had formerly stood upon the place, and the jungle grass probably sprung up from grass-seed fallen from the chhappar; the thatched roof. The sepoys, except two with my guns, and my orderly, whom I trusted, owing to his late steadiness, to hand me my double gun, took to the trees, and Mr. F⸺ followed their example. The men on foot began beating the bushes, directed by the corps of observation in the trees. At length a full-grown buffalo emerged from the surrounding jungle, and stood before me on the open space. Instantly every tree opened its fire; a single grazing shot was the only result; this appeared to decide him, lowering his horns to the charge (to speak poetically), his hoofs swallowed up the space between us; at my feet was the least possible swell of the ground, and as he reached it I stopped him in mid career. A ball from my large gun had entered his head, between the horns,—a little to the right as facing me, a little to the left as regarded himself. He fell at about six feet from me.
“You must now never mention Mr. B⸺’s exploit, since an ordinary mortal has done as much; for my part, I see little cause of fear from buffaloes. In the cold weather, the usual shooting season, they are only found in large plains, and no person with a trustworthy gun has an excuse for failing to kill in such a situation, where he must have long notice of the charge. Nothing in Friday’s experience (not man Friday’s) will deter me from going after very large-horned old ones, or the young calves, whose heads make excellent soups and stews. The manner in which I got my gun, and the haste I was obliged to make in firing, account for my not killing the leading buffaloes in the road. If they had meditated malice, instead of only making a rush to get away, I might have been in a jeopardy. These two buffaloes were brought in during the day by the sepoys, and all the personages of my story—the nine buffaloes are, you see, accounted for;—and the tragedy might be represented on the stage, if nothing but the unities of time and place were requisite.”