250 OBTAINING MEN FOR BEATING. 



quently occupies fifty or sixty acres of ground. 

 I have seldom seen any of half that size; the 

 average I take to be from three to ten acres. 

 In the upper provinces of Bengal, canes some- 

 times continue for a mile or more in extent, with 

 intermediate spots between every five or six 

 acres, cultivated with grain, or lying waste. 

 These canes seldom exceed a hundred and fifty 

 or two hundred yards in breadth, running by the 

 side of a water-course, river, or lake, and therefore 

 do not require more beaters than a square cane 

 of four acres ; but it is considerably more difficult 

 to get hogs clear off from them, as they keep 

 running backwards and forwards from one cane to 

 another, and the distance between each is seldom 

 sufficient to enable hunters to spear them; therefore 

 it requires some able manoeuvring with the men 

 to cut off their retreat, and oblige them to quit 

 such canes. It is customary to apply to the head 

 men of villages for people to beat the covers ; 

 if they find it is to beat their own canes, they 

 will seldom supply them without an order from a 

 Civil servant of the district ; (it should, however, 

 be understood that a present will have the same 

 influence in India, as it has in all other parts of 

 the world,) if it is to beat canes belonging to 



