232 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



occasions when these deer may be stalked I have done it 

 myself; but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the 

 thing, in its stricter interpretation, cannot be done in his 

 Central Indian fastnesses. A belated stag may be found 

 at very rare intervals in ground suitable to a real stalk ; 

 a stag in horn during the rains may offer a like oppor- 

 tunity ; or you may hit off and intercept a beast going 

 home in the twilight of the dawn ; but these are excep- 

 tions to the rule that this cautious nocturnal animal is 

 usually well into his thick jungle by the time it is light 

 enough to see your rifle-sights, and once there you will 

 rarely move him, so as to get a shot, unless you rouse him 

 with beaters. Then, again, this beating for sambar rarely 

 results in having the deer walked up to your post to be 

 rolled over in inglorious ease : the beaters are merely the 

 finders, the rousers of the game ; when that is done the 

 affair has only begun. The stag may take almost any 

 line; the sportsman's business is then to intercept him, 

 cut him off, watch him till he halts, and then creep in on 

 him, etc. tactics that look very simple on paper, but 

 which cannot be recommended to the lazy or poor-con- 

 ditioned sportsman, accustomed perhaps to the compara- 

 tively confiding habits of spotted deer, swamp deer, etc., 

 whose habits and habitat admit of finding and stalking in 

 the more orthodox way. These peculiarities of sambar 

 shikar make it sufficiently arduous and exasperating to 

 offer attractions when tamer sport has begun to pall on 

 one. Anything like big bags are practically out of the 

 question ; blank days are conspicuously to the fore ; and 

 since it is peculiarly difficult to make an accurate estimate 

 of the size of the stag's horns, the greatest care has to be 

 exercised to avoid the slaughter of full-grown stags with 

 small heads. The ten hours of a cold-weather day in the 

 bracing air of these hills seem disappointingly short when 

 spent in the pursuit of wary old " Dhank." 



The beat began, as I have said, and, after a while, an 



