CHAP, v OOTACAMUND 81 



and masses of jungle, and broad expanses of more open 

 country. The invigorating air and majestic character 

 of the scenery make it the beau ideal of a sportsman's 

 hunting-ground, very different from the steaming, burn- 

 ing plains Brooke had just left. Here he had the good 

 fortune to come across several well-known sportsmen, 

 who were able to give him much valued advice, and the 

 experience he had himself acquired in the last two 

 months enabled him to enter upon his second expedition 

 with renewed hopes and prospects of success. 



He made Ootacamund his headquarters, and from 

 there penetrated to the wildest parts of the Neilgherry 

 Hills. Before starting afresh he thus writes to his 

 mother : 



"OOTACAMUND, I st February 1863. 



To-morrow at daybreak I start with tents on a ten 

 days' (or perhaps more) expedition to a most wild, 

 uninhabited part of these hills. A Captain Brine is 

 coming with me ; he is the first man I have met in 

 India that I could live with, and he makes up for all 

 the others. He is a most keen, experienced sports- 

 man ; in looks he reminds me very strongly of Uncle 

 Ned ; he is just like him, only more worn-looking, and 

 more silver in his jet-black hair, a silky black beard, 

 with snowy traces here and there, constitute the only 

 difference in the general contour of face. He is about 

 the bravest of Indian braves, with twenty-two summers 

 in this scorching clime ; all in all, you might travel 

 very far and not find a more pleasant companion or a 

 finer-looking man. Many and many is the to me most 

 thrilling story he can tell of successes and escapes. I 

 could not help thinking it was' a subject for Whyte 

 Melville, to see Brine and me searching in the grave- 

 yard here for the grave of poor young Hancock, who 

 was killed by a tiger at the foot of these mountains 



