176 



CHAPTER XIV. 



RIFLES AND CAMP-MANAGEMEXT. 



GENERAL REMARKS — HEAVY RIFLES — OPINIONS OP SIR SAMUEL BAKER AND THE LATE 

 CAPTAIN JAMES FORSYTH UPON RIFLES — HEAVY GAME — LIGHT GAME — 4 AND 8 BORE 

 RIFLES — HEAVY CHARGES — BATTERY FOR INDIAN SPORT — EXPRESS RIFLES — OBJECTIONS 

 TO THE EXPRESS FOR HEAVY GAME — SHELLS — CAMP - ARRANGEMENTS — MALARIAL 

 FEVER — PROBABLY ONLY CONTRACTED AT NIGHT — PRECAUTION AGAINST MALARIA — 

 NECESSITY FOR SLEEPING OFF THE GROUND — CAMP-FIRES — TEMPERANCE — BOILED AND 

 DISTILLED WATER— INDIAN SERVANTS. 



T 



HE reader wlio has done me tlie honour to follow me thus far, -will be 

 JL aware that my recitals have been confined hitherto cliiefly to sketches 

 of jungle-life in the parts of India I have had experience of, and to the 

 natural history, capturing, and training of elephants. 



Before passing to other animals, and the more purely sporting portion 

 of my narration, I propose to offer a few remarks upon rifles, and on the 

 medical portion of camp-management. I can look back to having lost so 

 many animals when a beginner — animals toiled after without grudge, and 

 the loss of which, through the ineflectiveness of my rifles for tlie work 

 in hand, cost me pangs at the time which only the young sportsman can 

 understand ; and I have suffered so much from the malarial fevers that are 

 the most dreaded enemy the sportsman has to contend against in campaigns 

 into the localities where large game is to be found, — that I liope my experi- 

 ences may save some from similar disappointments of the chase, and from 

 the shiverings of ague and burnings of fever that I have endured, and 

 which may be averted with knowledge and care. 



There is perhaps no subject upon which more frequent discussions arise 

 amongst sportsmen than that of the best rifles for game. The matter really 

 admits of no great latitude of opinion, nor is it men who have li;ul iiiiuh 

 experience that diri'cr. The conllicting vicM'S are held by those who speak 



