Cup of bitterness,
and retires again to his jungle haunts to die a lingering death from
some unskilful wound. The best shot must frequently miss by moonlight;
there is a silvery glare which renders all objects indistinct, and the
shot very doubtful; thus two animals out of three fired at will
generally escape wounded.
I was tired of watching by night, and I again returned to the
neighbourhood of Yalle. After a long ride through a burning sun, I went
down to the river to bathe. The water was not more than three feet deep,
and was so clear that every pebble was plainly distinguishable at the
bottom.
I had waded hip-deep into the river when my servant, who was on the
bank, suddenly cried out, 'Sar! sar! come back, sar! Mora! mora!' and he
pointed to some object a little higher up the stream. It was now within
ten or twelve yards of me, and I fancied that it was a piece of drift
timber, but I lost no time in reaching the shore. Slowly the object
sailed along with the stream, but as it neared me, to my astonishment, a
large black fin protruded from the water, and the mystery was at once
cleared up. It was a large SHARK about nine feet long.
In some places the water was so shallow that his tail and a portion of
his back were now and then above the surface. He was in search of grey
mullet, with which fish the river abounded; and at this season sharks
were very numerous, as they followed the shoals for some distance up the
river. My servant had been in a great state of alarm, as he thought his
master would have been devoured in a few seconds; but the natives of the
village quietly told me not to be afraid, but to bathe in peace, 'as
sharks would not eat men at this season.' I was not disposed to put his
epicurean scruples to the test; as some persons may kill a pheasant
before the first of October, so he might have made a grab at me a little
before the season, which would have been equally disagreeable to my
feelings. The novelty of a white skin in that clear river might have
proved too strong a temptation for a shark to withstand.
I never saw game in such masses as had now collected in this
neighbourhood. The heat was intense, and the noble forest in the
vicinity of Yalle river offered an asylum to all animals beneath its
shade, where good water and fine grass upon the river's bank supplied
their wants. In this forest there was little or no underwood; the trees
grew to an immense size and stood far apart, so that a clear range might
be obtained for a hundred yards.
