ROUND THE CAMP FIRE 331 



In he goes, and out comes the maddened brute, utilising 

 all those terrifying qualities with which it has been so 

 richly endowed by nature for the express purpose of in- 

 timidation ; the sportsman may be of extraordinarily 

 exceptional nerve, he may place his shots with unusual 

 accuracy, projected from the most perfect weapon for the 

 purpose, but this may be one of those not uncommon 

 instances in which a wounded animal appears impossible 

 to stop and the results are then tragic. 



Not until the peculiarly nasty effects of a "mauling" 

 are personally experienced is it possible to realise what 

 they mean. Accidents of this sort usually occur when far 

 from any kind of medical aid or comfort, and at a time of 

 year when the Indian climate is particularly unfavourable 

 to the chances of recovery for a wounded man. Whether the 

 victim oneself, or the person responsible for the care of the 

 man who has been mauled, one such experience is usually 

 amply sufficient to demonstrate that the " reckless " game 

 is not worth the candle. It is not the intention here to 

 " make yer flesh creep," but it does not require a very 

 great deal of imagination to picture the amount of trouble 

 and distress consequent on an accident of this kind: the 

 anxiety of those attending a delirious man burning with 

 fever and swollen with poisoned wounds ; the difficulties 

 of transporting him in perhaps a wild and sparsely 

 populated jungle ; the possibility of the sufferer being 

 alone, by himself, attended only by terrified native ser- 

 vants ; and the fatal dangers of " shock " and blood- 

 poisoning. 



No man who had once realised such dire effects could 

 sit down and elaborate the thoughtless and unqualified 

 dictum so often responsible for them. And it is the busi- 

 ness of every sportsman who "knows" to do his utmost to 

 refute this dangerous counsel. 



It is with the manner of the advice, not with the sound 

 theory which underlies it, that our refutation is intended to 



