6 INDIAN BIG GAME chap. 



been changed for many years past. Only a 

 portion of the country is thrown open annually 

 to shooting, and the rest is strictly preserved. 

 Permission to shoot has to be obtained, and the 

 number of tiger that may be shot is limited. 



Generally, in the Gunners we did not do badly. 

 But the halcyon days were gone when our pre- 

 decessors, the British Cavalry in particular, made 

 bags which make my mouth water to this moment. 



There was a considerable bandobast to make ; 

 maps had to be obtained, routes and country 

 thought out, shikaris sent on in November with 

 cards and again in February, and all the supplies 

 and transport for a big shoot, miles from any 

 railway, arranged. 



In all this lay quite half the pleasure of the 

 shoot, in anticipation. 



On our first shoot our arrangements w^ere good 

 enough, but we trusted our shikaris and they let 

 us in badly ; one of them turned out to be a 

 drunkard and the other a liar. Consequently we 

 only got one tiger and various panther and bear. 



The one tiger came out to me and gave an 

 easy shot. He weighed 480 lbs. and measured 

 9 feet. That was over the curves. In those days 

 we always measured over the curves, and I have 

 stuck to that system ever since. I know that peg 

 to peg is the universal method now adopted ; but 

 as I have never shot any approach to a record, 

 nor have ever sent any measurements for registra- 

 tion, my method affects no one but myself. 



Neither our panther nor our bear gave us 

 much excitement. The bear we got climbing 

 among the rocky hills. We ate a joint from one 



