SPORT IN AN INDIAN FOREST RESERVE. 127 



the plain by only one hill. The other two of us he 

 took towards the main hill. Here he told us he 

 proposed to post one near the base, and the other 

 in a saddle higher up. I elected to remain below, 



and my subaltern, P , had to climb the other 



hundred feet of rock. 



Scarcely had he done so when the beaters ap- 

 peared at the head of the valley. They advanced 

 steadily, and several times I heard the furious shouts 



which mean " game on foot." Presently P 's 



ritie rang out twice. Again this happened. The 

 beaters had nearly got to us, when I heard them 

 yelling, and saw what I took to be a panther going 



towards P . Again he fired. Just then some 



gazelle came galloping down the valley between 



D and myself. We both fired, but a running 



gazelle is a small mark at a hundred yards, and they 



went on untouched. The beat was over. P 



came down from his hill, and told us he had missed 

 two hyaenas and killed one, besides seeing another 

 he did not get a shot at. 



For the next beat we had to climb to the top of 

 several parallel passes. When I afterwards got to 

 know the ground better, I found out that the shikari 

 had arranged the guns badly. Had we been stationed 

 half a mile further on, we could easily have com- 

 manded the whole ground, whereas as will be seen, 

 this was not the case. Moreover, in going to our 

 posts, we obviously disturbed the very places we 

 were going to beat. My post was only to be attained 

 by climbing nearly half a mile of a rocky ridge. 



