8P0RTINQ RAMBLES ROUND ABOUT SIMLA, 57 



truly marvellous, combined with a judgment that would have 

 adorned the bench. A shikaree, too, yon will want — a man who can 

 work the dogs, and who has some knowledge of the country and the 

 sport to be found there. Tents, of course, if you are going to leave 

 the road and the bungalow. They must be small and light, and, like 

 all the rest of your luggage, capable of being carried on mules or on 

 men's backs. If you are going for a short holiday only, with no 

 definite plans made for you by some friend on the spot, I should 

 advise you to stick to the Thibet and Hindoostan high road (a 

 pathway from 3 to 12 feet in width), on which for over 100 miles 

 there are good bungalows, distant some ten or twelve miles from 

 each other. Shooting all that you can reach from these bungalows 

 on either side of the road, you may, if you are keen and in good 

 trim, cover a great quantity of very fairly good ground, and you will 

 be incomparably more comfortable than you could be in tents, with 

 the thermometer at nights well below freezing-point. A servant, 

 too, you must have who can cook, and has some experience of 

 marching in those districts and knows the language of the people. 

 And, lastlv a man who can skin birds. Such a man can almost 

 always, I believe, be got in Simla for a salary of Rs. 15 or Rs. 20 a 

 mouth, and it adds enormously to the pleasure of a ramble in a new 

 country to be able to collect specimens as you go along. Here 

 before you are some of the birds which I collected on my first visit; 

 to Simla, and many more might have been collected. It is scarcely 

 worth while in October or November taking a rod with you, but 

 there is no harm in taking a small trout rod, a few flies, and one or 

 two small flying spoons, which you can get at Luscombe's, of Allah- 

 abad, better than anywhere else that I know of. I have not fished 

 myself, being told that at that time of the year it was useless; but a 

 forest officer, whom I met last November, told me he had just 

 caught several smallish fish in the Giri in the direction of the Chor 

 (a big hill not very far from Simla), — I think he said with a fly. If 

 your visit should be in May or June, certainly take your fishing 

 tackle. Both in the Giri to the east and the Sutlej to the west the 

 Indian trout [Barilius bola) and mahseer (though not of any great 

 weight) are to be caught and give good sport. So at least I am 

 informed on the very best local authority. At that time of the year, 

 when the upper rivers are full with the melting snow water, the 

 rish ascend the smaller, tributary streams, and descend when the 

 water begins to run line again at the end of the rains, say in 

 8 



