224 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



and came up the bank of it right opposite me, as I thought 

 with the determination of making a home charge. As his 

 head appeared over the top I fired at it, at the distance of 

 only some dozen paces, and he tumbled back again to the 

 bottom, where he lay dead. My astonishment was not 

 small to find that I had missed him clean the last time, and 

 that he had died just in the nick of time from the first shot 

 through the shoulders. 



By far the finest sport afforded by the sambar is when he 

 is regularly stalked in his native wilderness, without either 

 elephant or beaters. I will not waste a word on so vile a 

 practice as that of shooting him at night, when he comes to 

 the crops or drinking places. None but a native shikari, or 

 an European with equally poaching proclivities, would ever 

 think of such a thing. To succeed in stalking, the camp 

 must be pitched as near as possible to where they have 

 been ascertained to resort at night to feed and drink. A 

 party of the aborigines of the place must be entertained to 

 act as scouts, people who thoroughly know the country and 

 the haunts and habits of the deer, and who are not afraid to 

 traverse any part of the jungles in the dark. These must be 

 sent out in couples long before daylight to crown the most 

 commanding hill tops in the neighbourhood, with instructions 

 to mark any sambar they may see on the way from their 

 feeding grounds to the midday resting place. When deer are 

 observed one should remain to watch them, while the other 

 hastens with the news to some well-marked central point, 

 whither the sportsman himself must leisurely proceed, starting 

 half an hour or so before daybreak, accompanied by one or two 

 of the wild men. It is very likely he may fall in with deer 

 himself by the way, and get a stalk ; but if not some of the 

 scouts are almost certain to bring information in time to get at 



