89 



" Ayapali, one of the most indefatigable Shikarees we ever knew, 

 " now volunteered to undertake the forlorn hope of retrieving the 

 '* wounded deer. A council of war having been held on the subject, 

 " it was settled that he should descend the Ghat by a rather 

 " dangerous path, which would enable him to reach the bottom of 

 " the ravine, taking a rifle with him to despatch the stag if he 

 " found him : whilst the two sportsmen watched above in case he 

 " should move. 



" Another anxious hour passed. At length the trusty Ayapah 

 " was seen to reach the foot of the Ghat in safety ; he descended 

 " into the ravine ; and, next moment, a faint report announced that 

 " the death shot had been administered. 



" Ayapah reported that he had found the stag dying, under a 

 " rock, but that he got upon his legs, and made a feeble attempt to 

 " charge before he fell." 



In his appendix to " the Old Forest Ranger" Colonel Campbell 

 gives the following note to this. " And this with seven balls 

 through his body ! /" 



" This is no exaggeration. The incidents narrated in the text 

 " are taken, verbatim, from a journal kept by my brother en the 

 " Neilgherry hills. In my own journal I find an instance recorded 

 " of a stag receiving, ten loz. balls before he fell. Two, which he 

 " received at first, without even slacking his speed, passed clean thro* 

 " his body, about the centre of the ribs. After this he ran about 

 " a mile, and laid up in a wooded ravine to which I tracked him, 

 " and again beat him up ; one ball broke a hind leg, and another, 

 " entering above the rump, passed along the back bone and came 

 " out near the shoulder. I lost him for about an hour, but again 

 " found him, and when he broke cover, I planted two balls close 

 " behind the shoulder, but still he went away strong. In the chase 

 " which followed, I hit him twice in the body, and at last brought 

 " him down by a ball through the neck, when in the act of leaping 

 " a rivulet. He however got upon his legs again, and stood at bay 

 " in the water, when I was obliged to fire another ball into his head 

 " to finish him. 



" I could quote a dozen similar instances of the extraordinary 

 " tenacity of life possessed by this animal." 



12 



