BIKANEER AND THE GREAT DESERT. 261 



railway to find any game at all, or any single black 

 buck, much less a herd, which will allow a European 

 to approach within shot, unless he consents to the 

 most undignified methods of procedure, such as by 

 imitating the dress and manner of a native agricul- 

 turist who is pursuing his ordinary avocations in the 

 fields, or by crouching in a country bullock cart and 

 dexterously slipping out behind at the proper moment 

 unperceived by the buck, all of which, being merely 

 different ways of deceiving the game in an unfair 

 manner, besides being troublesome to carry out where 

 game is scarce, fail in giving that sense of genuine 

 sport experienced by the deer-stalker or the fly- 

 fisher. For these reasons I was bound for Bika- 

 neer, which lies within the confines of Bajputana, 

 generally marked upon the maps as the Great 

 Indian Desert, which appears as though it should be 

 the home par excellence of the Indian antelope and 

 allied species of deer. This sandy, mostly level, and 

 comparatively dry tract stretches along the left bank 

 of the Indus as far as the river Sutlej, which is the 

 easternmost of the five rivers of the Punjab and joins 

 the first named. 



I had selected Sirsa as the starting-point, almost at 

 haphazard, and yet partly because it was situated 

 upon the new Ferozepur-Eewari branch of the Eajpu- 

 tana-Malwa railway, and boasted of a refreshment 

 room and other conveniences at the station, besides a 

 bungalow of the C.S. Officer above alluded to, who 

 was kind enough to assist me. On the other hand, as 



