50 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



said ' tusker/ and I on my part bagged him. 

 Eight days of my leave had elapsed, and as yet 

 I had not bagged any big game by this I mean 

 the ferce naturce proper. I had caught glimpses 

 of four or five tigers, and, like a young ass, had 

 run after them into the high grass, hoping they 

 would be accommodating enough to stop and 

 give me a good shot. Needless to say, they were 

 not such fools, and, luckily perhaps for me, held 

 different opinions on the propriety of such a 

 course. Bears I had not come across, nor pan- 

 thers either, though their c pugs ' in the bed of 

 many a sandy ' nullah ' went far towards proving 

 that they existed in fair numbers. Elephants' 

 tracks I had seen, and had been awakened one 

 night by a herd coming to drink close to camp. 

 I had, however, shot several deer, and, faute de 

 mieux, had made a fair bag of pea-fowl, black 

 partridge, jungle-fowl, etc. 



Oh ! ye gentlemen of England who sit at home 

 at ease, what would not some of you give to be 

 put down in that little paradise of game that I 

 wot of on the banks of the far-distant Ganges ? 

 No bother there about rascally keepers, poachers, 

 birds dying of ' gapes.' loss by vermin, etc., and 

 all the hundred and one worries attendant on 

 game-preserving in Merrie England. All you 

 have to do is to get a few beaters who will wil- 



