HUNTING IN THE INDIES 199 



must possess speed and courage. The English grey- 

 hound has the first, but not the second, therefore a 

 cross is necessary. The usual cross is with a native 

 breed, of which there are one or two suitable. A 

 cross with a Scotch deer-hound would, I think, not 

 be amiss, or, better still, with the Australian kangaroo 

 hound. The jackal is not fairly matched against 

 greyhounds at all, the natural quarry of which in 

 India is the fox, which is useless for hunting purposes, 

 whereas the jackal will provide a good run with 

 fox-hounds. 



III. THE COLOMBO HOUNDS AND THE KANDY 



BEAGLES. 



The first meeting which was called together for 

 the purpose of starting a pack of hounds in Colombo 

 took place, I recollect, in the summer of 187 — . I 

 shall allude to it only briefly, because shortly after 

 that meeting I left Colombo, and hardly ever saw 

 that particular pack of hounds. They were fox- 

 hounds, and the intention was that they should hunt 

 the jackal. I can't say who was the authority for 

 the statement that we should find plenty of "jacks," 

 but the fact is there were practically none at all, 

 and from a subsequent experience of the spicy island, 

 extending over half a dozen years, I certainly wonder 

 any one should have thought there were. I never 

 saw a jackal anywhere in Ceylon, in the hills or the 

 plains, north, south, east, or west. I have been told 

 they exist in the extreme north, and the fact remains 

 that the Colombo Hounds once But I anticipate. 



