Jungle By-Ways in India 



great size and weight and heavy build of the 

 sambhar (a full-grown stag in good condition runs 

 from 500 to 700 Ibs.), to see for oneself the pre- 

 cipitous country he can get over. Down rocky 

 slopes, little short of precipices, his trail will lead 

 you, and up khuds that one would think were 

 negotiable to the goat alone, and along knife 

 edges on the saddles where a false step would 

 drop one down uncomfortably steep slopes. In 

 such country, clothed sparsely with stunted tree- 

 growth or scattered bamboo clumps and a thick, 

 coarse, usually matted grass, the sambhar, and 

 especially the old sambhar stag, is in his element, 

 and such are the places where he must be sought 

 for nowadays. 



I can recommend no better morning's outing 

 for a man in good fettle than a climb for a stag 

 in the cold weather in the Siwaliks or foot hills 

 of the Himalaya. Your shikari, if he is worth his 

 salt, will insist on your reaching, before dawn, a 

 ridge or saddle from which you can get a view of 

 several little valleys and dells, and this usually 

 means getting off between 3 and 4 a.m. on a bitter 

 morning with a wind blowing down from the 

 snows fit to cut you in two. Many such pleasant 

 reminiscences have I to look back to. 



I remember one morning most vividly. I had 

 determined on one of several unsuccessful treks 

 after a big stag which was known to inhabit a 

 certain area in the upper hills. Starting at 3 a.m. 



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