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noiselessly, for, on the grey misty curtain which often hangs over 

 a lake at night, being suddenly dissolved by the first sun light, I 

 found myself almost in the centre of a herd of antelope. Several 

 does, each more ghost-like than the other, sprung up from the 

 smooth, short grass on which they had been resting close to the 

 water's edge and, with their large ears erected, gazed silently at 

 the intruder on their slumbers. Presently a fine black buck followed 

 their example and stood, about sixty yards off, facing me. I fired at 

 his chest, missing that, but breaking a foreleg just below it with 

 the ball which then passed through the hinder leg on the same side 

 and smashed it close to the hock, the bullet then glanced into and 

 broke the other hind limb, which must have been lazily stretched 

 back as the buck, roused from his sleep, stood staring at me. 



The news of my success at once magically refreshed my bearers, 

 who, delighted at the prospect of venison, without complaint or 

 demur, or waiting for any suggestions from me, forthwith detailed 

 two of their party to bring on the buck, while the diminished 

 number taking up their load, jogged cheerfully on to their proper 

 halting place. 



On that occasion I was getting over, by night and day stages, and 

 as fast as I could, a long journey of about seven hundred miles from 

 Russelcondah in Goomsoor, to Rajahmundry on the banks of the 

 Godavery river, and back again ; therefore in that part of the 

 country where every husbandman, shepherd or fisherman is also a 

 palankeen bearer, travelling in any conveyance of that kind was a 

 legitimate and not unsportsman-like proceeding ; but to me there 

 have been few greater pleasures than getting over long distances 

 in the saddle ; and as I am on the subject, I trust I may be excused 

 if I enter the following extract from a chapter on ponies, which I 

 wrote a short time ago for the last edition of the Griffin's Aide-de- 

 Camp, a well-known book on the horses used in India : 



" The " Dekkanee tattoo," ! ! ! how many a liver trying ride under 

 a roasting sun and in the teeth of wind which felt almost as scorch- 

 ing as a blast from a furnace : but still how many days of glorious 

 sport, and how many a cheery comrade, do those words recall ? No 

 man, save the writer's old friend, Henry Shakespear, in the " Wild 

 sports of India," has attempted to do justice to the game little slave 



