24: SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



fifteen miles between daybreak and sunrise, the tents and 

 baggage being dispatched in the first instance on bullocks 

 and camels, in order to the former being pitched at the next 

 halting-place, and if possible, breakfast in due preparation by 

 the time we arrived either on horseback or in palanquins, as 

 suited our purses or inclinations. 



The route between Madras and Wallajabad being, even at 

 that early period, much frequented, did not offer such 

 opportunities for sporting as the more distant parts of the 

 Presidency ; but as our halting-places were generally fixed in 

 the vicinity of some tank where wild fowl in great variety 

 were sure to be found, and the paddy fields near the villages 

 afforded a certain harbour for snipes, the newly arrived 

 griffin* and incipient sportsman, who, in defiance of doctors, 

 fever, and liver complaint, was determined to prosecute his 

 favourite amusement, even beneath the rays of a tropical sun, 

 had plenty of work for his gun. Some very young hands, to 

 whom shooting flying was as yet an art to be learned, carried 

 on an indiscriminate slaughter upon blue pigeons, turtle 

 doves, paddy birds, and such innocent objects as were foolish 

 enough to sit still and be shot at; and others recklessly 

 wasted their skill and ammunition upon the turkey buzzards 

 and vultures that were always hovering around in search of 

 the offal of the camp. 



I think it was at our second halting-place, when having 

 observed a large tank not far from our camp, encircled by a 

 broad belt of grass and reeds, and dotted with water-fowl in 

 the centre, that after tent-pitching, breakfasting, and per- 

 forming the prescribed duties of the morning, I took my 

 gun from its case, and accompanied by my maty, or second 

 servant, started on my first shooting excursion on Oriental 

 soil. 



* Name given to a cadet during his first year's residence in India. 



