172 AN EL DORADO OP WILD SPORT. 



with in a day's shooting. When I say quantity, I do not, 

 however, suppose that any one calling himself a sportsman 

 would wantonly shoot at every hornless animal that gets up 

 before his elephant. Then there is the free gipsy sort of life 

 you lead pitching your camp, which is provided with every 

 comfort, at will in some beautiful forest-glade, where there is 

 nothing to remind you of the more stern realities of life ; 

 where not a human habitation is to be seen, save perhaps, 

 here and there, a grass-built shed, tenanted by herdsmen 

 tending their cattle pasturing in the forest. And when the 

 log-fire has burnt low, and the camp is all hushed in repose, 

 what lullabies to the sportsman are the wild sounds that now 

 and again break the solemn silence of night, as the echoes are 

 aroused in the neighbouring woods by the " belling " of a 

 startled deer, the deep-mouthed voice of some prowling tiger, 

 or the distant trumpeting of wild elephants, which the tame 

 ones at their pickets acknowledge by a low rumbling noise ! 

 How profound is your sleep under canvas, until awakened at 

 the first flush of dawn by the shrill crow of the jungle-cock 

 and the call of the pea-fowl ! when, after a comfortable 

 breakfast, the elephants are brought up, their howdahs 

 fastened on and furnished with all the necessary appur- 

 tenances, " baccies " are lit, and you are off for the jungles 

 again. 



Then comes the picnic lunch, which may occasionally be 

 graced by the presence of some of the gentle sex who have 

 been induced to trust themselves on elephant-back to see the 

 sport. Baskets are unpacked, their contents displayed in the 

 cool shade under the wide-spreading branches of some grand 

 old banyan-tree, and the laugh and joke go merrily round. 



Last, and perhaps not the least of the charms of this 

 quondam, El Dorado of wild sport, is the beautiful combina- 

 tion of undulating forest, winding stream, and adjacent moun- 

 tain scenery. Moreover, the rivers afford the votary of the 

 gentle craft ample scope for the successful use of his rod. 



