50 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



followers who now fatten on the sahibs' gold. The " man of 

 the world" perfectly agreed with this, and pointed the 

 moral with a little Hindustani fable bearing a striking 

 resemblance to " killing the goose with the golden eggs." 



There is a charm in stalking the wild animal, when he is 

 wild, which is absent in a Scotch deer forest. When you do 

 see him (alas! not too frequently), he is your own. if you 

 can get him. The wind can never be wrong if a stalk is 

 possible, and there is no gillie to observe that you will drive 

 the beast on to a neighbour's forest. Still, for stalking as 

 an art, Scotland is far superior. In Kashmir it is very 

 rarely you can see and circumvent the stag on ground 

 which renders a scientific stalk possible. He lives in a. 

 forest, not only by name hut in reality,- — an endless wilder- 

 ness of huge pines. His only appearance is at daybreak and 

 dusk, when lie comes out to feed; and almost the only 

 chance of getting a shot is by lying in ambush near to his 

 favourite haunts. With patience and luck this may suc- 

 ceed, but it can hardly lie called real sport. 



When the stags are roaring, it is better fun. This 

 sounds rather unsportsmanlike, but it is not so in 

 practice. The extent of ground is so vast, and the 

 stags so few in number, that even when one is heard 

 bellowing in the miles of fir forest which stretch along 

 the hill sides, to find him is like searching for a 

 needle in a bottle of hay. And although they are 



