PREFACE 



THE " Incidents " related in this work have been 

 put together as a guide to the numerous class of 

 sportsmen who, year by year, go abroad in search 

 of game. Very many men lose their lives yearly, 

 simply from a superabundance of pluck ; and the 

 want of training in wild sports, which is as necessary 

 to a successful hunter as learning A B C is to a 

 youth prior to reading and writing. There is no 

 royal road to learning, nor can a man become a 

 proficient as a hunter who has not acquired the 

 knack by undergoing a great deal of toil ; for 

 experience is only learnt after years of practice. 



The author may be said to have commenced his 

 novitiate before he was six years old, as he was 

 then allowed to sit in the back seat of his father's 

 howdah in charge of an orderly, and as soon as he 

 was capable of using a gun or a rifle, he graduated 

 in sport under competent guidance, and learned 

 how the ferce naturce should be followed up to the 

 bitter end with safety to himself and attendants. 



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