240 THE HUNTING GEOUNDS 



eye ; and where, with the exception of certain times 

 in the year, the air and the water are poisoned by 

 malaria, and impregnated by the exhalations of 

 decayed leaves and decomposed vegetable matter, 

 entailing certain death to the hunter, were he 

 tempted to follow up his perilous calling out of 

 season. 



Notwithstanding the danger of elephant-hunting, 

 it has ever been a favourite sport amongst the cove- 

 nanted servants and officers of the Indian army; 

 and the names of Oswall, Kogers, Godfrey, Garrow, 

 Michael, and one or two others, are " as familiar as 

 household words " throughout India, on account of 

 their numerous daring feats and perilous escapades. 



Sometimes herds of elephants are tempted to 

 roam, and leave their homes in the deep jungle to 

 devastate the sugar-cane plantations and rice-fields 

 of the ryots, where they commit great damage ; and 

 on such occasions the Anglo-Indian sportsman is 

 enabled to get amongst them without being obliged 

 to penetrate the dense forests so pernicious to 

 health. 



One evening, on my return to my domicile at 



Ooty from a very jovial picnic given by P , a 



sporting collector of Coimbatore, at the celebrated 

 Dodabetta Peak, (which rises to the height of 8700 

 feet above the plains,) Chineah, my head shekarry, 

 informed me that a party of Mulchers whom I had 

 sent out to look for game had come, up fiom the 

 low country with the news that a herd of elephants 



