MISCELLANEOUS. 227 



distance of forty miles from Mysore, the road enters the 

 outskirts of the jungle, near Gopaulswamy hill. This 

 point is within twenty-four hours of Bangalore by rail and 

 road, and within easy reach of the Chamraj Nugger jungles, 

 and therefore favourably situated for shooting trips limited 

 by short leave of absence. 



In December, 1881, when shikaring in the Chamraj 

 Nugger district, at the foot of the Billiga Eungum Hills, I 

 received a letter from my friend Colonel Pearse, advising 

 me to stay at Nunjengode, on the return journey to 

 Mysore, to beat for a panther which had been doing a good 

 deal of damage at that place, and to shoot some alligators 

 in the Cubbany Eiver, which ran close to the Maharajah's 

 bungalow, in which I was to stay. This was situated 

 in a park, and had formerly been a shooting lodge, the 

 game in the vicinity being preserved by an ancestor of the 

 present Maharajah . Accordingly, on my way back, I 

 spent one day on the river, and shot two alligators, about 

 10 feet 6 inches long each, and wounded an immense brute 

 as he lay basking on an island about 100 yards distant, but 

 he got into a deep pool and was never seen again. The 

 fishermen brought their nets and dragged the pool for his 

 body, but could not find it. They were very plucky, and 

 seemed to have no fear of being attacked by the alligators, 

 stating that, for many years, nobody had ever been killed 

 by them. From Nurseepore, eighteen miles off, however, 

 news arrived of several people having been carried off by a 

 mugger* which resided in a particular pool near that 

 village. I had arranged to meet Pearse there the following 

 day, so, leaving Nunjengode that night, I arrived there 

 at 6 a.m., and pitched the camp in a shady tope of trees on 

 the bank of the Eiver Cauvery. While my breakfast was 



* Alligator. 

 Q 2 



