2 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



of the Royal Duke. The Mysore table-land is 

 almost denuded of jungle in the east, north, and 

 centre. Along its western and southern borders 

 primeval forests clothe the deep valleys of the 

 Shayadri or Neilgherry mountains, and in this 

 canopy of green, herds of wild elephants have 

 disported themselves unmolested, from time im- 

 memorial. The Belligherry Rungan hills form an 

 outlying mass of the Neilgherries, on the south- 

 eastern frontier of Mysore, and, rising to a height 

 of nearly five thousand feet, are clad with dense 

 vegetation. Save for a solitary planter who had 

 made a home in these solitudes, they were thus 

 far untouched by the ruthless hand of the coffee- 

 planter. Here was the favourite feeding-ground 

 of numerous herds of elephants ; and here was 

 the spot chosen for the great " drive " to be 

 witnessed by the grandson of our Queen. 



Mysore's first glimpse of its illustrious visitor so 

 shocked its anticipations of the Royal advent, 

 that I am tempted to describe it. It was on 

 a cold, misty morning in November that the 

 special train conveying his Royal Highness steamed 

 into the Pettah station. All official Bangalore and 

 a large sprinkling of the native population were 

 assembled there to do him honour, although his 

 stay was to be for only a few minutes on the 

 way to the capital and thence to the scene of the 

 elephant-hunt. The train drew up, and all was 

 expectation to catch a glimpse of the Prince. My 

 native friends expected to see a personage decked 

 out in cloth of gold and resplendent with jewels of 



