Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



When moving in line it was frequently impossible 

 to see the elephants to the right and left of one, 

 even when standing in a howdah on an elephant, 

 such a height was the grass. This made it very 

 hard to see game, and all one's shots had to be 

 taken quickly; add to this the fact that I was 

 quite new to shooting from the top of an elephant, 

 no easy matter, though I was provided with a 

 perfectly trained beast that stood like a rock on a 

 word from his " mahout," and it may be imagined 

 that my contribution to the bag was not a large one. 

 A nilghai or blue bull was my first chance, 

 and this was duly floored to my huge delight, 

 though they are disappointing beasts, their horns 

 being very small, considering their size. A day 

 or two after, we were beating up a very heavy bit 

 of jungle for tiger. Suddenly my elephant raised 

 his trunk with a snort, and I saw the grass violently 

 agitated in front of us and within a few yards, no 

 animal visible. I had a shot on chance, judging 

 the direction by the movement of the grass, and 

 was answered by a loud " Wouf wouf," alarming 

 in its deepness and power; then followed more 

 shots down the line and more deep responses. 

 Nothing, however, was bagged, and it turned out 

 afterwards I thought they were tiger at the time 

 that we had disturbed at least three sloth bears ; 

 nobody actually saw one, and firing by the move- 

 ment of the grass is very difficult one is nearly 



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