201 



IN CROCODILE VALLEY. 



THE finest shooting grounds I know of in India 

 and I have been over the greater part of 

 the country are in the Native State of Bonai, 

 in Chota Nagpore. Before the opening of the 

 Bengal-Nagpore Railway, few Europeans ever 

 visited this out-of-the-way district, and even 

 now not a dozen persons know of its exist- 

 ence outside the pages of the Gazetteer. Fifteen 

 hundred square miles of densely-wooded, well- 

 watered hill and dale, never trodden by civilised 

 man, and little troubled with cultivation of any 

 kind, is just the ideal home for wild beasts in India. 

 Within twenty-four hours by railway from Cal- 

 cutta, the wonder is that it has not been more shot 

 over. Here the lordly elephant, the shaggy bison, 

 the sullen buffalo, the stately sambhur, tigers and 

 their kind, deer of sorts, bears, immense crocodile, 

 wild hogs, pea-fowl, and a dozen other game birds 

 can be had galore. The Raja, a fine old sportsman 

 himself, is only too ready to give permission to 

 European gentlemen to shoot over his estate, and 

 will, on occasion, join in the sport and bring with 

 him a most unique armoury of offensive weapons. 

 He will at such times be attended by match-lock 



