390 THE HIGHLANDS OF OBNTEAL INDIA. 



the poor animal limb from limb. Fearing a row between 

 Tinker and the young dogs I ran up as fast as possible ; but 

 a Byga with his axe was before me, and attempted to get the 

 quarry from the dogs. He didn't know Tinker, however, who 

 loosed his hold on the deer s throat only to fly at the Byga. 

 The latter defended himself as well as he could with his axe 

 handle, very thoughtfully for such a savage, not attempting 

 to use the head ; but he had several pretty severe bites in the 

 arms and legs before I could arrive to his rescue. As a rule 

 Tinker was as quiet as a lamb with men ; but when roused by 

 blood he was a perfect devil ; and as his size and weight were 

 immense I was often rather afraid of him myself. Poor fel- 

 low, his formidable aspect and a few outbursts of this sort 

 were the death of him, being poisoned by a dog boy a few 

 months afterwards. Bell broke her neck by chasing an ante- 

 lope down a blind well, a few marches after the hunt I have 

 related ; the best of the two pups was carried off by a leopard 

 or hyaena ; and altogether I was so disgusted with the bad 

 luck I had always had in keeping large dogs in India that I 

 gave it up altogether ; and I cannot say that I found very 

 much loss accrue to my sport in consequence. I believe they 

 lose more wounded animals, by driving them out of reach, 

 than they recover. 



On the way back I shot another hind, who stood too long 

 to gaze at the unwonted intruders, and saw the tracks of a 

 wild elephant sinking deep into the soft black soil. I was 

 told afterwards that this elephant was one which had broken 

 loose from captivity about ten years previously, and had since 

 inhabited the dense covers about the head of the Halon river. 

 He afterwards annoyed the forest officers not a little by 

 systematically demolishing all the masonry boundary pillars 

 erected by them round the reserved forest. Keally wild ele- 



