34 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



Permission to shoot the alligators (some of them of tre- 

 mendous size) was granted only to one person, a certain well- 

 known fort-major, an excellent shot, and who well knew the 

 only vulnerable spot in the animal. Many of them had rings 

 and bangles attached to their feet, which had remained since 

 they were first put into the moat as puppies, a method 

 adopted at an early period by the Mysore Government to 

 prevent at the same time desertion from their own troops, 

 and render the attack of an enemy more dangerous and diffi- 

 cult. An instance had been known of an Irish soldier, in 

 the face of almost certain death, repeatedly swimming over by 

 night to the bazar opposite, for the purpose of obtaining a 

 bottle of arrack ; but who eventually fell a victim to his 

 temerity. I here joined a very large detachment of officers 

 and troops about to proceed to different stations on my 

 own line of march up the country, such as Nundydroog, 

 Bellary, Belgaum, Kulludjee, &c. My own destination, 

 Jaulnah, was the most advanced cantonment in the Madras 

 Presidency, and the head-quarters of the Hydrabad sub- 

 sidiary force. 



The commander of the party was a very original specimen 

 of the old Indian officer of those days a certain Colonel 



W , and regarding whom some droll anecdotes were in 



circulation, amongst which I shall quote two that occur to 

 my memory. Upon one occasion he sent in a charge against 

 a subaltern under his command, to head-quarters, worded 

 in the following manner : "For flying in the face of his 

 commanding officer." In answer to this accusation, the 

 adjutant-general replied that he was not hitherto aware 



that flying was a military crime ; but if Colonel W 



could point out where the young man was likely to alight, 

 a guard should be dispatched to capture him. Another, and 

 equally characteristic one, was: He was observed one day 

 making out his monthly returns by the aid of a Johnson's 



