Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/32

6 A pit 10 ft. long, 8 ft. wide, and 8 ft. deep, was dug on the boundary, covered with a mat made of reeds and bamboos, over which earth and dry leaves were scattered. The smell of the fresh earth, however, turned them off. Once a Gaur got his fore feet down the side of the pit, but made a bold jump and cleared it.

"After some months the tracks of a large herd were found making for the pit, and it turned out that a Gaur had fallen in, but managed to jump clean out again. It was evident that 8 ft. was not deep enough, and rock in the bottom prevented its being sunk deeper. Another pit was therefore dug some distance away on the same boundary. The ground was on the side of a steep hill, so that whilst the lower wall was 10 ft., the upper was 14t ft. deep."

After a while a cow Gaur fell in, but whilst Mr. Martin was watching her, and waiting for coolies to help in putting logs across the pit, she managed to scramble out; and although she followed the path to the old pit, she avoided it and escaped. Two days afterwards a bull fell in and was secured. Mr. Martin describes the trouble they had with this huge animal:—Getting logs across the top of the pit, with the Gaur charging madly about, was exciting work, and the feat was successfully accomplished only after the utmost difficulty and danger.

"The appearance of any one near the pit always caused a furious demonstration on the part of the Gaur, who dug big caves in the side of the pit with his horns, and thus an approach to the edge was rendered dangerous. In ten days' time he had become somewhat tame. He tossed about the grass thrown in to him, and trampled it into the mud, eating but a small quantity. His only drink was water poured into the pit, and which collected in the holes he had made in the mud with his feet. Matters were very little improved by having bundles of grass lowered by a long piece of cane fastened round, for he charged them furiously, and got a lot of the grass on the ground only to trample it into the mud.

"By degrees he began to eat more and to throw less about. Water was a great difficulty, any attempt, too, at lowering a bucket to him was futile, and only ended in the bucket being flattened out.

"It became imperative, therefore, to get him out of the pit.