Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/33

Rh To attain this end, a stockade about thirty feet square was made round the pit, consisting of stout poles, fifteen feet high at the lower, and ten feet high on the higher part of the ground. They were each sunk about three feet in the ground, eighteen inches apart, and lashed together with cross sticks and fibre, and formed an almost solid wall. A sheet-iron trough was fixed in one corner. When complete, large quantities of brushwood, ferns, and grass were thrown into the pit, until by degrees it became half full and the Gaur was enabled to jump out. His first act was to charge the corner whence he was being watched, but the only harm done was to himself, his frontal ridge being slightly cut. His attention was then attracted by the water-trough, which he knocked about considerably, but finding the water, he took one good long drink before finally knocking it to pieces. During his examination of his new quarters he once more fell into the pit, and this enabled us to repair damages; but before they were quite completed he jumped out again and caused a general stampede. Having twice hurt his head against the stockade, he never again made any attempt to test its strength. The sheet-iron trough seemed to annoy him more than anything else, and was soon rendered useless. A three-cornered wooden trough was then inserted in a corner and protected by stout poles across the corner of the stockade, and this having been satisfactorily arranged, the Gaur soon became comparatively tame. He allowed the measurements of his horns to be accurately taken, through a window left in the stockade, and very fine horns they were, too, measuring 34½ in. across, from outside to outside of sweep. Although the pit was filled up level with the ground, his previous experience led him to conclude that it was dangerous, and he never crossed it. The result was that the narrow space between the pit and the stockade became ploughed up, and he was up to his hocks in mud. It therefore became necessary to enlarge the enclosure for about a hundred yards in length, taking a bit of jungle in for shelter, and a small ravine which would hold water. A small shed was erected, with sliding bars on the outside and inside, with a view of introducing a domestic Cow as a companion, and so if he approved of her she might be let into the stockade.

"He took to his new quarters very kindly, and soon got to