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to supply the camp followers and elephant men with 

 meat. They afford very pretty practice, however, 

 for howdah shooting (off an elephant), for when you 

 spring them they go with a headlong rush right 

 away, and seldom give you more than a quick snap- 

 shot ; I may here mention that for shooting from 

 the back of an elephant a rifle cannot be too bent in 

 the stock ; in nearly every case where a shot is 

 missed it is from too much elevation. 



The cheetal sheds his horns in an erratic way, 

 and it is as well before making an expedition in his 

 pursuit to find out if he is fit to shoot. I was 

 shooting once in the " Barber," a portion of the 

 Terai between Nepal and Dehra, in the early part 

 of February one year, and to my disgust found that 

 the cheetal were all in velvet. However, fortunately 

 I met a forest officer shortly after, and he told me 

 that if I proceeded into the foot hills for about 20 

 miles from where I had been hunting (into the Kotri 

 Doon, as it was called) I should find the deers' heads 

 perfectly clean ; I took his advice and found that it 

 was so. 



Towards the end of a sojourn in the Mundla 

 district, I found myself camped on the banks of the 

 Narbuddah. My camp ground was perfect but for 

 one drawback the mango grove in which it was 

 situated was colonised by a quantity of flying foxes, 

 a large frugivorous bat, and the amount of swearing 

 and quarrelling that went on all day was trying to 

 the nerves. However, as it was rather too large an 

 order to shoot them all, I let them alone. South of 



VOL. II U 



