250 The Planting Grounds 



heard where the deadliest of fevers lurk in places 

 the most beautiful to the eye ; and where, with the 

 exception of certain times in the year, the air and 

 the water are poisoned by malaria, and impregnated 

 by the exhalations of decayed leaves and decomposed 

 vegetable matter, entailing certain death to the hunter, 

 were he tempted to follow up his perilous calling out 

 of season. 



Notwithstanding the danger of elephant-hunting, it 

 has ever been a favourite sport amongst the cove- 

 nanted servants and officers of the Indian army ; and 

 the names of Oswall, Rogers, Godfrey, Garrow, 

 Michael, and one or two others, are " as familiar as 

 household words" throughout India, on account of 

 their numerous daring feats and perilous escapades. 



Sometimes herds of elephants are tempted to roam, 

 and leave their homes in the deep jungle to devastate 

 the sugar-cane plantations and rice-fields of the ryots, 

 where they commit great damage ; and on such occa- 

 sions the Anglo-Indian sportsman is enabled to get 

 amongst them without being obliged to penetrate the 

 dense forests so pernicious to health. 



One evening, on my return to my domicile at 



Ooty from a very jovial pic-nfc given by P , a 



sporting collector of Coimbatore, at the celebrated 

 Dodabetta Peak (which rises to the height of 8700 

 feet above the plains), Chineah, my head shekarry, 

 informed me that a party of Mulchers whom I had 



