2 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



Beasts of India ' ? and, if you are fond of Indian 

 sports, your library will, I am sure, contain such 

 volumes as, c Hog-hunting in the East/ ' Wild 

 Men and Wild Beasts,' i Camp Life in the Satpura 

 Hills,' etc., etc. In all these you will find accounts 

 of many a wild and thrilling adventure far more 

 exciting than any I can offer for your amusement 

 and delectation. Still I hope that, if you deign 

 to peruse these pages that, if you too, like me, 

 have ever enjoyed a night in the glorious jungles 

 of the Far East, they may bring to your mind 

 happy halcyon days, and carry you back to the 

 time when as yet your brow was unfurrowed by 

 care, and your hair untinged with grey. 



There are dozens of men, good and true sports- 

 men, who have slain numerous tigers and bears, 

 etc., in fair and open fight aided, at least, by a 

 small army of beaters and elephants who have 

 gone through all the glorious excitement of stand- 

 ing a c charge ;' others who have, on lonely hill- 

 side and in dense virgin forest, stalked and shot 

 the lordly elephant, the bison, and sambur ; but 

 probably, if you asked any of them if they had 

 ever sat up at night by a lonely pool of water in 

 some dense jungle, your interrogation would be 

 received with scorn. You would be told it was a 

 c nasty, native-poaching dodge,' unworthy of an 

 English sportsman; that ' le jeu ne vallait pas la 



