236 MISCELLANEOUS. 



except the keenest sportsmen. It is therefore necessary to 

 decide whether the sport is worth the risk the fever is 

 seldom fatal and although in after years it may occasion- 

 ally inconvenience one, but few sportsmen regret their 

 original decision in the affirmative. Smoking is also a 

 salutary habit in malarious jungles, and before leaving the 

 tent or hut in the morning a cheroot or pipe should be 

 lighted. 



In different jungles the malaria varies according to the 

 time of year in a very marked way, and shooting trips 

 must be timed to avoid unhealthy periods. In the primeval 

 forests, the unhealthy season lasts from the beginning of 

 November to the beginning of July, whereas in jungles of 

 the medium forest type, such as those of the Mahoor and 

 Neermul * districts, the malaria is least from the beginning 

 of March to the first rains in June, after which they 

 become very feverish. The annual grass-burning opera- 

 tions are undoubtedly of great utility in checking malaria 

 by diminishing the amount of vegetable matter, which by 

 its decay engenders malaria. 



It occasionally happens that a jungle of good repute 

 plays a party false, and that the majority of its members 

 are suddenly incapacitated by fever. A case of the sort 

 occurred at Bangalore some years ago, when a party of 

 three officers who had been shikaring in the Billiga 

 Eungums were attacked by malignant fever, and obliged 

 to return to Cantonments, only one of whom survived the 

 illness. Even the Hyderabad jungles occasionally afford 

 similar cases in the hot weather, and they must be 

 attributed to bad drinking water, or unsanitary sites for 

 camps, such as spots near old burial grounds or bottoms 



* Or Mrmul this district lies south of the Godavery, in the 

 Nizam's dominions. 



