40 YERLSARIGA. 



of trees wliilst making a near advance, when tlie Lull, hearing us, showed 

 himself, and I stejjped out and faced him at thirty yards. He did not 

 charge, however, though he snorted furiously, and I killed him with a shot 

 in the neck as he turned. This was the work of two or three minutes from 

 my first seeing him. He was an immense animal, eighteen hands at the 

 shoulder, and very old. He had foot-and-mouth disease. 



The villagers of this tract in past times evidently made much use of 

 the grazing grounds on the top of the hills during the dry weather, and have 

 constructed a fine tank, called the Hannaykerray, on the summit. This 

 holds water at all seasons. Tlie name signifies the tank on the brow, haii- 

 nay meaning forehead in Canarese. 



At the foot of the Hannaykerray hills is a Sholaga hamlet called Yerl- 

 sariga, or the " seven fields." Around it is a little cultivation, but it is 

 chiefly a cattle-grazing station. It is eight miles from Morlay, and by 

 keeping a Sholaga there in kheddah employ I always have early news of 

 any elephants coming down the hills ; and when bison-shooting, or looking 

 after elephants, I generally make it my headquarters. The Dodda Goudan 

 Parliah gorge, being a broad and gradually ascending means of ingress to 

 the hills, contains the main elephant and bison track between them and the 

 low jungles. 



There is a hamlet called Poonjoor, on a tributary of the Honhollay, four 

 miles to the south of Yerlsariga, along the foot of the hills. It is close to 

 the Hassanoor Ghat road, just at the point where the road enters the pass 

 through the hills towards Coimbatore. There is only one family at Poon- 

 joor ; the headman, old Bommay Gouda, has ahvays been one of my greatest 

 allies in sport, and I must honour him with some mention. 



Bommay Gouda is a man of about fifty-five years of age. He is of 

 good caste, being a Shivachar or Lingayet, and lives by cultivation and 

 breeding and selling cattle. Of all the cheery jungle-companions I know 

 Bommay Gouda stands first. He has literally lived amongst wild animals 

 all his life and possesses the most consummate knowledge of their habits, 

 but the tiger and the elephant are his chief game. At a story by the camp- 

 fire he is unrivalled, and he is still as tough as he is keen. I please him 

 by telling him he is " my father " in sport, the filial position being founded 

 on his having piloted me up to my first elephant, bison, and bears. One 

 thing distresses him, which is that after he is gone there wiU be no one to 

 keep up his name, as his eldest son is good for nothing at sport, no chip of 

 the old block. I shall frequently have occasion to mention Bommay Gouda, 

 as we have done many good days* sport together. 



