JACKAL HUNTING ON TEE NEILGEERRIES, 1876. 133 



ground amid the rocks within. Veerasawmy ! where is now 

 your cunning ? Can you not tell us where there is a hole over 

 which to shout " Who- whoop ! " if but our noisy Harmony will 

 speak. "Hark, holloa!" Our jack has been seen stretched 

 gasping on the turf not a hundred yards ahead ; but, tired as 

 he is, he can still stretch on in front of half-conditioned hounds ; 

 and, though Dalesman of the Quorn is heaving along at his 

 brush, the hound is absolutely too tired to seize, and Jack pops 

 into a welcome earth under his very nose. 



This was our opening day. The second was much alike, 

 though hounds ran fast for forty-five minutes instead of thirty, 

 with the same result in favour of Jack. We hope that condi- 

 tion will put us on an equality in a week or two ; but, happen 

 what will, this is a wild sporting country in which English fox- 

 hounds are not wasted, where game is plentiful, and the problem 

 of scent is (locally) solved. To gallop over this virgin turf is a 

 delight, and the sport is genuine and constant. 



" Twenty-five minutes, with a kill in the open, all over 

 grass," sounds well enough almost for Leicestershire ? At any 

 rate, it has brought on such an attack of cacoethes that there is 

 no holding me away from pen and paper, and the following 

 must be received as a let-off to my feelings. Seven days in 

 close succession, with a rattling gallop on each, have been 

 crowned and climaxed by the above ; and so you will grant 

 there is at least excuse, if not occasion, for an outbreak of this 

 kind. 



At 6.30 this morning sixteen couples from the kennels above- 

 mentioned were slowly perambulating the grassy slopes in the 

 neighbourhood of Ootacamund — every nose in the air, every 

 pair of eyes looking anxiously round for excuse to riot, and each 

 individual only kept from breaking away to romp and revel by 

 the black looks and ready whipcord of Mr. Veerasawmy. I 

 think 1 have already had the pleasure of introducing this man 

 of talent to your readers. Suffice it now to repeat that he 



