128 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



satisfactory sport. In the last few weeks I stalked and 

 bagged an immense tiger (i I feet 4 inches as he lay ; 

 cured skin will be over 1 2 feet, which is quite out of 

 the way), also a black panther. This latter bag was a 

 good bit of luck, as they are the rarest beasts of the 

 kind that I know of. There have been only five skins 

 sent to England from India. If you have seen my 

 mother's letters you will have an idea of the death of 

 these two amiable creatures, and so I won't bother you 

 now. I have now killed specimens of all the different 

 game of Southern India excepting bears, which animals 

 I intend to persecute unceasingly till I start for ' Ould 

 England.' My bag consists of elephants, tigers, panthers, 

 bison, sambur, spotted deer, wild pig, antelope, muntjac 

 or barking deer, and wild peacocks ; lots of small game, 

 such as large gray duck (a kind of goose), common 

 duck, three varieties of teal, jungle fowl (species of 

 pheasant), two kinds of quail, hares, three kinds of 

 snipe (painted, solitary, and common), etc. etc. Alto- 

 gether I have had decidedly excellent sport, and would 

 wish myself were it not for dreams of Africa no 

 better fate than to spend another year among the hills 

 and jungles of Southern India. I have not suffered in 

 the very least from the climate, at least not directly 

 that is to say, not from the heat or sun. But the 

 constant wet and damp in the rains plays the mischief 

 with oneself and all the tackle. I am not exactly in 

 the robust rustic state of health I was in when I left 

 England ; but considering I have never spared myself in 

 the very least from wind, sun, or fever, I think I can't 

 complain ; 1 2 stone 2 Ibs. puts me down now ; 1 3 

 stone 8 Ibs. could not do so a year ago, but that's 

 natural enough. I am just back from a grand expedi- 

 tion into Malabar, the land of elephants. A man in 

 the i /th Lancers, called Falconer, was with me. We 



