230 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



But I know you agree with my views on this game protec- 

 tion question, so I'll get on with my story. 



" As I have said, we had had fair luck and had bagged 

 some dozen tigers and four or five leopards by the day I am 

 speaking of. We had, however, had several blank days 

 just previously, and though the khubbar was good, we were 

 not over sanguine as the party left camp about nine o'clock 

 in the morning. We had a ride of five miles in front of us, 

 and accomplished this on a couple of pad elephants, the 

 howdah elephants having, of course, been sent on ahead. 



Part of the ride was up the hard bed of the River, 



and we were pretty well roasted by the time we reached the 

 rendezvous. 



" The plan of campaign for the day included four beats, 

 two in the morning and two in the afternoon. You know 

 the big block of sal forest, with open patches of tall grass 



that runs alongside the Forest Road. It is intersected 



by a rather deep ravine, filled for the most part with tiger 

 grass, and a few scattered copses of the sissu and khair 

 trees. The idea was to beat the two blocks of jungle in two 

 separate beats, each towards the ravine, the first beat to 

 come out in the upper part of the ravine, the second in 

 the lower and towards the road. Jitman knew the country 

 perfectly, as, in fact, did another man and myself, and we 

 had the stops, consisting of elephants and also some men 

 posted in trees, placed at the points where a tiger would be 

 likely to try and quietly leave the beat. 



" During the first drive the four howdah elephants were 

 placed in the ravine, and none of us had a very nice stand. 

 The grass was too high and thick. The winter had been a 

 wet one, and rain had fallen in the hot weather, with the 

 consequence that the grass had not died down or opened out 

 to anything like the usual extent. Also we feared we had 

 scarcely enough beating elephants to make success certain, 

 for the area to be driven was a large and difficult one. As 

 it turned out, we were right. Certainly one tiger was afoot 

 in the first beat, but he got past us in the long grass. The 

 same thing occurred in the next, and we were pretty savage, 

 all of us, by the time we reached the lunch rendezvous. 

 Two of the men turned rather crusty, in fact, lost their 

 tempers, and began to swear at the shikaris and mahouts." 



There is one piece of advice I would offer to a youngster 

 commencing his career in India, or anywhere else for that 



