VEER. 187 



satiated them, and converted the camp into a species of 

 shambles. No other beaters were obtainable, the Todahs 

 (a hill tribe) being scarce in those parts, and our beaters 

 were useless, after the second day, owing to their gourman- 

 dising propensities. My friends had then to return to 

 Coonoor, but I spent two days beating the Orange Valley* 

 sholahs, for a tiger which had been killing buffaloes, only 

 meeting with a small stag. These sholahs were smaller than 

 those at higher levels, and, by a judicious system of stops, 

 could be managed fairly well by one gun. The headman 

 of the Todahs came into camp at Koktal Mund on the 

 second evening to report that the tiger had been poisoned 

 by a sahib, who shall be nameless, only a few days before. 

 I then went on to Ootacamund, and thence to Neddi- 

 wattum, as the guest of the hospitable and genial Bob 

 Jagoe, who had a charming bungalow near the Government 

 cinchona plantations ; my colonel was also of the party, 

 and we had a very pleasant time. The sambur, being very 

 fond of the bark of the cinchona trees, were in the 

 habit of jumping the fences, some six feet high, and, after 

 luxuriating in the inclosures all night, returning to the 

 sholahs in the early morning. It was impossible to 

 intercept them, as they were clever enough to retrace their 

 steps long before daylight. We beat the sholahs one day, 

 but they were, as a rule, too thick for the beaters to 

 penetrate, although they put out one good stag from a 

 small sholah, which was hard hit, but escaped to the low 

 country. I had, however, some nice stalks in the 

 mornings and evenings. One morning, on peeping over a 

 ridge, I saw two stags a large and a small one feeding 

 towards a sholah on my left ; they were some six hundred 



* So called from the abundance of wild orange trees which 

 adorn its slopes. The scarlet rhododendron is also prevalent. 



