HUNTING DURING RAINS. l8l 



American opinion will be found practically unanimous, 

 among experienced sportsmen, as to the moral value 

 of the training conferred by a short sojourn in the 

 woods, and few who have given the thing a trial will 

 ever look back upon their trip with other feelings 

 than those of pleasure. Even when the weather turns 

 out unfavourably, and is wet and rainy, so far as the 

 prospects of sport go the discomfort is not without 

 its counterbalancing advantages for rain has the 

 effect of softening down the fallen leaves so that they 

 do not rustle under the feet, and dry twigs become 

 pliable, and do not snap noisily as in dry weather; 

 moreover the pattering of the rain of itself helps to 

 prevent the hunter's movements being heard, so that 

 rainy weather, though unpleasant, is good for still- 

 hunting in temperate climates, where malaria is not 

 to be dreaded. The tropical rains however are so 

 tremendous, and the springing up of rank vegetation 

 so exceedingly rapid, that after the first day or two of 

 the rains (at which time game often show themselves 

 in considerable numbers on the edges of the open 

 grounds) sporting in general has to be suspended 

 until a more favourable time. 



Getting wet in tropical Africa, and indeed in most 

 malarious districts, for instance, is almost the certain 

 prelude to an attack of fever: 



"During the summer rains in India," says Sir Richard 

 Temple, "the animals roam so far afield, and so constantly 

 shift their abodes ; the woods and forests become so thick, 

 the trees so impervious, and the mist and downpour so de- 

 pressing, that the hunter must rest in enforced idleness. 

 In Autumn the malarious exhalations warn the most hardy 

 and adventurous to beware of entering forests, where in 



