JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 49 



mined hulla-baloo, at which the hens, overcoming 

 their maiden modesty, would sally forth to offer 

 their services ; whilst the cocks, than whom a more 

 pugnacious race never existed, had only to hear the 

 crowing of one of their brethren, than they would, 

 with brotherly love, immediately come to a pitched 

 battle with him. 



Of this part of the fun, however, I disappointed 

 them, by taking the fighting part of the business on 

 myself ; for, as soon as they were well clear of the 

 jungle, I sent a load of shot at them, and rarely ever 

 missed so inviting an object. 



In this manner I have shot upwards of twenty 

 jungle-fowl of an evening, or by moonlight; and I 

 really believe the decoy at last understood and en- 

 joyed the sport as much as myself, except when he 

 came in now and then for a stray pellet of shot in 

 a tender part. 



To describe every minutise of the perilous ascents 

 and descents over the mountain after elk, however 

 exciting they may be in reality, when we are one 

 moment swinging our bodies over ghastly-looking 

 bottomless pits scraping the bark off our shins and 

 carrying away all the "behind" of our "un-hint- 

 at'em-ables" in undertaking a gradual descent on 

 the broad-guage principle, by bringing the widest 

 portion of our entity to bear on the greatest possible 

 surface of rock, is a very tame piece of work when 

 merely transcribed on paper to be read and "poohed" 

 and " pshaw-ed" by some jolly fat old gentleman in 



E 



