The ambition of all sportsmen between Kamchatka and India, to add a sladang to their shooting trophies, was achieved by Mr. Mark L. Moody of Shanghai on February 6 in the hinterland of Saigon about 400 kilometres from the port. Mr. Moody was accompanied by Major and Mrs, Howard N. Stent, the party having left here late in January in the Andre Lebon.
Customs formalities having been dispensed with, deposits paid on each gun and pistol and a shooting licence at a cost of 80 piastres having been betained, the party proceeded in a decrepit car over roads rearly as bad as their conveyance.
Their guide, Mr. "Tarzan" Tiran, had had natives build two grass houses, on stilts into which they moved. After a plunge in the icy stream (although the climate is equatorial, they were at an altitude of 4,000 feet) and a hasty supper they went to sleep to be wakened early in the morning. sladang and he speaks of his second encounter in his diary as follows:—(Saturday, February 5)—We all headed for a new piece of territority, still in search of fresh sladang tracks or signs and about noon our efforts were rewarded and we returned to camp for some chow and a rest. I remained in camp for the afternoon and made it a good rest.
In the morning (Sunday, February 6) we took up the trail and quest of the day before and found still fresher signs of sladang and returned to camp at noon for food and a rest. Tiran said that he believed we were close to sladang and that they might be overtaken that very afternoon, Having watched Tiren read the ground for over a week and having a wholesome respect for his judgment I concluded that maybe the gods would smile on me and give me another chance if I would do my part, so I set off in the afternoon with more determination than Five Impressive Animals Many sportsmen go for weeks at a time and have never seen a sladang. On January 30, however. Mr. Moody was very fortunate and suddenly came upon five impressive great animals, three majestic bulls and two large cows. The smallest probably weighed 2,500 Ibs. while the largest came to a ton and a half. Mr. Moody was so enraptured at this sight that he watched them for 25 minutes, picking his animal as it were and thinking just where he would put his first shot. Suddenly without warning, the sportsman still remaining motionless, the herd leaped with the speed of a deer and were lost in the jungle—4or their huge hulks their speed was something phenomenal Mr, Moody states "that his face was red." On his return to camp he shot a big buck with beautiful horns. (According to the Oxford Dictionary, a sladang, variant of seladang, is a large wild ox or gaur of the Malay countries).
According to Mr. Tiran, sportsmen after sladang usually search tirelessly for sladang dung and prepare a mixture which they smear upon their clothes in order to kill the human scent, It was also said that the sladang has the keenest sense of smell of any animal in the jungle and has super-sensitive hearing.
Several days later Mr. Moody across a beautiful peacock mea si B ft, 7 in. from the beak to the end of its tail feathers. He hot it and rubbed: the skin down with salt until it could be taken to the taxidermist in Saigon.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.