THE PATLI DUN 49 



incident was very exciting at the time, and 

 provided me with much food for subsequent 

 reflection. 



I fished the river with good success. The late 

 Sir Edward Buck, who gave me information 

 about the Ram Ganga, said that mahser might 

 be caught in it up to 18 pounds in weight; but, 

 fishing with natural bait, I caught much larger 

 fish in the river than this. 



A few days after the adventure with the tiger 

 I had another very interesting experience. The 

 Maharajah of Balrampur, a wealthy landowner 

 in the United Provinces, keeps a large number 

 of elephants, and the elephants and their drivers 

 are trained to run down and capture wild elephants 

 in the jungle. When the elephant which is 

 being hunted is a male, a battle is necessary 

 before capture can be effected ; and the wild 

 elephant is attacked and beaten into submission 

 by the trained male elephants in the hunt, or 

 Kheddah, as it is called by the Indians. The 

 forests in the Dehra Dun between the rivers of 

 the Ganges and the Jumna, where elephants 

 are numerous, is a favourite hunting-ground ; 

 and invitations to hunt-parties given by the 

 Maharajah are naturally much sought after. 



It had long been my desire to witness one of 

 these hunts, and, by a piece of rare good fortune, 

 Nanneh Khan, the Captain of the Kheddah, 

 on his return journey to Balrampur from the 

 Dehra Dun jungles, brought his elephants to the 

 place at which I was fishing on the Ram Ganga, 

 to hunt a solitary bull elephant which had been 

 marked down by his shikaris. A large male 

 4 



