Big Game Shooting, volume 2 (of 2)

by Clive Phillipps-Wolley

A CHARGING GAUR

But when the first few showers of the rainy season have moistened the dry crackling leaves, and softened the ground so that tracks can be followed, you should start in the early morning so as to catch the beast before he is down for the day (that is, before the sun gets hot, about 9 a.m. according to Sanderson), and getting on the fresh tracks of a solitary bull, follow him up. If your trackers are good, you should soon begin to find signs that you are getting near him (the droppings warm, &c.); you can then dismount from your pony which you have been riding in rear, and close on the trackers with your gun-carrier till they show you the beast. But whether your trackers are good or not, it is quite useless for you to interfere with them unless you have sufficient experience to do the tracking yourself and let the men follow behind. You must take it for granted they are doing their best; the fact of their being on a bison’s trail will ensure their running no undue risk from carelessness, and if you interfere you only confuse and put them out: therefore take Sanderson’s advice, unless they wish you to keep close to them, which they probably will not do, ride your pony comfortably about one hundred yards in rear, till they signal you up. You should then be either pretty close to or within sight of your game. It is assumed that you have two rifles, an 8-bore and a 12-bore, with round bullets; conical bullets are not to be relied on in jungle. Try to approach within sixty yards, and get your first shot in with the 8-bore. Should the bull bolt, run after him at once, whether you have fired or not. Very likely he will pull up after going a short distance and give you a chance. Aim well forward; if you break his shoulder you are more likely to get him than if you take him too far back; keep him in sight as long as you can; if he goes out of sight sit down and smoke a pipe or have breakfast. In any case give him half an hour, then follow up with your trackers, carrying the 12-bore yourself and your gun-carrier the 8-bore. If the track lead into thick stuff, send a man up the first tree you come to, and if he cannot see the animal, work carefully on to the next tree in the direction the track leads, though not necessarily on it. Work clean through the thick patch in this way from tree to tree, till you get to the far side; never mind the trail inside. Should you get through without seeing the beast, try to pick up the trail outside, and if you fail in this go back the way you came to where you lost the track, and try working through it from tree to tree in another direction. If your lines have formed a not too broad angle at the point you left the trail, and you cannot track him outside, the bull should be within the triangle, and if there are no more trees you must follow the trail. Should the jungle happen to be ‘Kharwee,’ the stems of which are about as thick as your finger, growing about six inches apart and eight feet high, you will find it exciting enough. The bull will probably turn short off at an angle just before he lies down, and if he means mischief will be watching his trail; you will then probably get within ten yards of him before you see him, in which case you will be able to realise the sensations of a valiant mouse hunting a man in a stubble-field. At this period in the chase you will naturally have the 8-bore in hand again. Presently the bull will either start up close to you, or you will perceive a black mass on the ground. Your only course then is to fire and lie down on the ground at once; the smoke will prevent your getting in a second barrel, and if the bull charges the smoke he will gallop over you without seeing you. It is not a bad plan to leave a man permanently up the first tree you reach to watch till you have quite done with the cover, as he will probably be able to see where the bull goes if he moves. If the bull is wounded again in thick stuff and again lies down in it, he is probably past doing harm; but still it is advisable to give him the time of another pipe. A man up a tree who can watch the exact place he is lying in is invaluable. Natives at this period of the chase, more particularly the inexperienced ones, invariably get excited and lose their heads, offering to go in and pull the bull out by the tail, and looking upon any precaution taken as a sign of faint-heartedness on the part of the sportsman. If the sportsman gives way to them and allows them to accompany him in the final stalk, he will probably get some fool hurt through disobedience of orders. The last approach to a wounded bull in thick cover should invariably be made alone, or with one gun-bearer, the rest of the men being put up trees.

Solitary bulls, Sanderson declares, are not a bit more savage by disposition than herd bulls, and the instances of their attacking natives when unwounded are almost invariably due to the bull being approached unawares within striking distance in the midst of thick cover.

He narrates a case of a gentleman being killed on the Putney Hills in 1874, but this was through incautiously following a wounded bison into thick cover. In this case the beast went on at once, after killing his victim in his rush. ‘Only in one instance that I know of has a wounded bison turned and gored his victim. I do not even think the solitary bull is more dangerous when wounded and followed up than a member of a herd. I have seen both die without resistance, and both give some trouble.’ An officer on the Head-Quarters Staff at Madras had a very narrow escape from a wounded bull a few years ago, getting knocked down and only escaping by kicking the bull in the face as he tried to gore.

Several writers have noticed that a stag sambur or bull nylghao (apparently it is always a male) occasionally attaches himself to a herd of bison, and that this follower is invariably the wariest and most watchful beast in the herd. Forsyth mentions a bull nylghao in company with a herd of buffaloes. Sanderson states that the bison, after a sharp hunt, gives out an oily sweat, and in this peculiarity it differs from domestic cattle, which never sweat under any exertion. He also says that herd bison retreat at once if intruded upon by man, and never visit patches of cultivation in the jungle; later on, however, he enumerates three varieties of cattle disease to which they are liable, and states that they sometimes contract these diseases by feeding in jungles used by infected domestic cattle. Of course these two statements are not necessarily contradictory, but the writer when shooting in the Western Ghauts found both herd and solitary bison within a mile or two of villages, saw their tracks on patches of ground cleared for crops in the jungle, on one occasion found bison on the side of a hill overhanging a main road on which there was daily a certain amount of traffic and near enough to it to see and hear the passers-by; and there was a range of hills, the plateau on the summit of which was a kind of open down where the village cattle were daily brought to graze, and there were a good many bison in the densely wooded ravines and slopes. The writer had been studying Sanderson’s book before starting, as every sportsman should who desires success in the pursuit of bison, and was particularly struck by the tolerance these herds, at all events, showed to the vicinity of natives.

Measurements

Authority	Nose to root of tail	Tail	Height at shoulder	Height at rump	Length, dorsal ridge	Height, dorsal ridge	Girth chest	Girth neck	Muzzle to frontal ridge	Breadth forehead	Ear	Length of horn	Girth of horn	Splay at tips	Tip to tip across forehead	Widest span inside	Remarks
Gavæus gaurus
	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.
Sterndale (‘Mammalia’)	114½	34½	73½	63	40	4½	..	..	25¾	15½	10½	..	19½	25	..	..	Quoting Sir Walter Elliot
”	104½	37¾	69	..	29½	..	104	48½	24	..	..	..	..	27¼	..	..	Quoting Mr. Blyth
”	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	17	22½	83	38½	? Outside
”	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	19	19	74	33	?”
Sanderson (‘Thirteen Years among Wild Beasts’)	..	..	72	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	19	19	74	33	?”
Mr. J. D. Goldingham, Bethnal Green Museum	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	33¾	17¼	24	..	..	Rowland Ward, ‘Horn Measurements’
Mr. T. W. H. Greenfield	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	33½	18½	25	..	33¼	”
Mr. J. Carr Saunders	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	13	..	32	17¼	33½	79½	46	Outside
Mr. A. O. Hume	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	31⅞	17⅛	21⅜	..	32½	Rowland Ward, ‘Horn Measurements’
Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Proc.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	31½	18	29	..	43	Outside”
Mr. J. D. Goldingham, Bethnal Green Museum	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	31¼	16⅜	12⅝	..	27½	”
Madras Museum	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	L: 30¾ R: 25½	20	36¼	70¾	44	? Outside. ‘Smoothbore’s Letter to the “Asian”’
Shot by General Cox	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	4	?”
”	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	46	?”
Lieut.-Col. Sandys	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	30½	16½	13½	..	33¼	Rowland Ward, ‘Horn Measurements’
Mr. J. Carr Saunders	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	30⅛	17⅞	33⅜	..	40¼	Outside”
Sir E. G. Loder, Bart.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29⅞	18¼	30	..	34	”
Sir V. Brooke	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29¾	18⅝	25¼	..	30⅜	”
”	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29⅝	18½	16¼	..	26½	”
Mr. J. D. Inverarity	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29½	18	..	..	33	Outside”
General Hardwicke, British Museum	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29¼	12⅞	..	..	18	”
Mr. B. H. Hodgson, Brit. Mus.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29⅛	16⅝	20⅜	..	29¼	”
Mr. O. Shaw	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29	22	..	..	..	”
Major Greenaway	..	..	65	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	29	22	..	..	..	”
The Writer	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	27	19⁹⁄₁₀	19⁴⁄₁₀	69⁹⁄₁₀	..	”
Col. Kinloch	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	69	36	? Outside. ‘Large Game Shooting’
”	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	17	..	66½	..	”
Forsyth	..	..	71	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	‘Highlands of Central India’
”	..	..	69	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	17	..	..	37½	? Outside”
”	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	25½	15½	..	..	..	”
Average of good head	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	27	18	..	..	..