444 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



the finest stalking in tlie world, to compare with the 

 other antelopes of Africa. Africa has no deer properly- 

 speaking at all, except the Barbary stag, which is out 

 of the regular beat of sportsmen. India, on the other 

 hand, has nine species of antlered deer. We have three 

 bears ; Africa has none at all. There is no country 

 in the world that can show such a list of large game as 

 we can in India. And for minor sport, what can compare 

 with our endless array of pheasants, partridges, and 

 wildfowl ? 



All this, too, is now so easy of access. The traveller 

 may step ashore, in Bombay, with nothing more than a 

 carpet-bag if he pleases, and at once fit himself out 

 for a year's tour through the country. If he joins a 

 regular camp in the " plains," he will find the most 

 perfect system of open-air life that has anywhere been 

 devised. Though an Indian camp may not, as, accord- 

 ing to Mark Twain, did that of the Yankee pilgrims 

 in Palestine, contain " a thousand boot-jacks," he will 

 find pretty nearly everything that civilised man can 

 want, ready to move about with him at the rate of from 

 twelve to twenty miles a day. By the help of railways, 

 he may see almost the whole country south of the 

 Himalayas, and shoot specimens of all its game, during 

 the pleasant cold months from October to March ; and 

 by the time that April ushers in the hot blasts of summer,, 

 he may find himself, if he pleases, stalking the ibex 

 amonor the snows of Kashmir. 



For mere sport England need not be left earlier 

 than December ; but should the traveller, as is probable, 

 have other objects in view, he should take an extra 

 month or two to see the lions of the civilised parts at 

 their best, which he may combine with some small game 

 shooting and pig-sticking if he likes, in November and 



