152 The Hunting Grounds 



buttons down the outside, should fit tightly to the leg 

 and well over the boots. The best material to have 

 them made from is corduroy, fustian, or moleskin, 

 when you cannot get properly dressed deerskin. 



I always found laced-up ankle-boots of deerskin 

 the most comfortable wear for hard fagging, and I 

 prefer substantial single soles, double ones being too 

 heavy to run in. 



A leather hunting-cap is the best protection to 

 the head for large-game shooting in the jungles of 

 India, and I prefer to have peaks both before and 

 behind, as the one saves the eyes and face from 

 thorns, and the other prevents anything from falling 

 down the back of your neck. In jungles where the 

 tree-leech abounds this is a great consideration, for 

 those animals often drop from the branches as you 

 shake them in passing and alight upon your person, 

 when they seem all to make for the back of your 

 neck by instinct. When in such jungles it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to wear leech-gaiters, or long closely- 

 woven cotton stockings, over your socks (which 

 should be of lambswool), under your boots and 

 gaiters and over your breeches, as far as they will 

 go. Even with this safeguard I have sometimes 

 found my boots and stockings drenched with blood 

 in the evening, though I could not ascertain how 

 they got in. 



I found velveteen, corduroy, or moleskin, the 



