176 RIDING, DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



that sport is often spoiled because hounds 

 cannot be got away after the jackal, that the 

 plan I have suggested is perhaps the best. If 

 there is no sugar-cane, or if the crop has been 

 cut, the jackal may be found in various coverts, 

 or in the large native gardens, which are like 

 small woods. These, though they are generally 

 fairly open and easy to draw, frequently hold riot 

 in the shape of sounders of pig and wild cat. I 

 have on several occasions had hounds badly 

 cut by boars. The scent of the wild pig is 

 most ravishing to hounds, and they literally 

 scream on his line, and are often most difficult 

 to stop. The wild cat, too, gives a scent to 

 which hounds, especially those fresh from 

 England, stoop much more readily than to a 

 jackal. Foxes in India are of no good for 

 hunting, for they leave no scent to speak of. 

 We now turn to the management of the pack 

 in kennel, which is by far the most difficult 

 part of the business and the most important. 

 It is difficult but not impossible to keep hounds 

 in health in India, and it is a matter simply 

 of the willingness to take trouble. The kennel 

 may be made out of any outbuildings, for on 

 one occasion mine, which was healthy but very 

 simple, consisted of two unused servants' houses, 

 with a door between and a yard in front. If I 

 had to keep hounds again, I would put a covering 



