THE HUNTING GROUNDS, ETC. 23U 



animal, whose keenly-developed senses far exceed 

 that of any other denizen of the forest; he must 

 be well acquainted with its peculiar structure and 

 anatomy, or his bullet, however true, will never reach 

 the vital part with any certainty ; he must be an 

 adept at " tracking," or following spoor, and in the 

 understanding of jungle signs, which, although a 

 natural gift to the red men of the Far West and 

 Indian jungle-tribes, is only acquired by intense 

 study and long practice ; he must be patient and 

 enduring, satisfied with hard fare and short com- 

 mons, as he will often have to subsist wholly 

 upon his gun, with the ground for his bed, and a 

 forest-tree for his canopy. He should feel with the 

 great poet, that "there is a pleasure in the path- 

 less woods," and " society where none intrudes :" 

 for he must often be content with nature and his 

 own thoughts as companions, and he must not let 

 his spirits be depressed by the solitude and intense 

 stillness of the deep jungle. 



The hunter must sleep like a hare, always on the 

 alert, ever prepared and watchful ; for he never 

 knows what he may meet, or the danger a moment 

 may bring forth. Inured to peril, he must never 

 be cast down or faint of heart ; or he had better 

 not attempt to follow up the spoor of the elephant 

 to his haunts in the dense, deep jungle, where the 

 rays of the sun seldom penetrate, and the wood- 

 man's axe was never heard — where the deadliest 

 of fevers lurk in places the most beautiful to the 



