THE JUNGLES OF SOUTHERN INDIA 139 



years past should result in maintaining, if not increasing, 

 the head of game. 



What a country this great tract is for the sportsman ! 

 Here the elephant and bison roam in numbers which, 

 owing to the extent and density of the jungles in many 

 parts, have remained almost unaffected by the rifle. The 

 poacher has done infinitely more damage ; and that dreaded 

 scourge which resembles a form of anthrax, from which 

 elephant, bison, buffalo and deer appear to be alike subject 

 to decimation. 



The territory here dealt with is broken up into series of 

 hills, rising even to mountains, culminating towards the 

 south in the beautiful Ootacamund Hills, a stretch of turf- 

 covered downs reaching eight thousand feet in elevation, 

 interspersed here and there with little jungle-filled cup- 

 shaped depressions termed " sholas," and artificially formed 

 Eucalyptus plantations. 



The Ootacamund Downs provide an excellent hunting- 

 ground, and Ooty has a first-class Hunt, the conditions of the 

 chase being more reminiscent of home than is the case with any 

 of the other Hunts I have been out with in India and Burma. 



The animal hunted, as is usual in India, is the jackal, 

 and fine gallops are enjoyed over the rolling downs, the 

 only drawbacks being the treacherous bogs and swamps 

 which are encountered and have to be crossed at the bottom 

 of the slopes ; and the sholas into which the hunted jack 

 seeks shelter. The shola may be occupied by anything 

 from a tiger, leopard, sambhar, boar, down to smaller fry. 

 The hounds running a jack into a shola naturally follow in 

 after him. And herein lies the danger. For if any of the 

 larger game animals should be in the way hounds quit the 

 old quarry for the new and commence to bay it, often with 

 exciting results. Many a fine hound is lost in this way — 

 English hounds imported from home at great expense. So 

 dense is the evergreen forest and undergrowth of these 

 sholas that they are almost impenetrable. The huntsmen 

 and Master carry heavy revolvers for these occasions. But 

 it often requires pluck of no ordinary kind to use them. I 

 remember a yarn which was going round Ooty on my 

 arrival there one season. The week before hounds ran 

 their jack into a shola and followed in. Within a very 

 short space bedlam broke loose inside. The hounds had 

 got on to an old boar. The few riders up did their best to 



