Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



right away to the very bottom of everything. I lost 

 them in a watercourse, and it took me the rest of 

 the day to climh up again ; drenching rain added 

 to my discomfiture. Four a.m. next morning saw 

 me up and dressed ready for the light to start, 

 when I went straight down to the ravines. Harder 

 work I have never had. These ravines are full of 

 bush as thick as an English coppice ; this has, 

 however, to be negotiated on ground only short 

 of precipitous, and covered under foot with " ringal 

 bamboo" stems, broken and laid flat downhill by 

 the winter snows. These make it impossible to 

 get a secure foothold, and going along the side 

 of a hill, one is perpetually coming down " whack " 

 on one's side, while going downhill one takes 

 imperial falls that shake every bone in one's 

 body. All this when there is need of absolute 

 quiet if game is to be seen ! 



From 5 a.m. till 5 p.m. I tried ravine after 

 ravine, and at last, after, a specially rousing fall, 

 I began to think I had had enough. For a minute 

 or two I had been lying where I fell to get my 

 wind, when " crack," a stick broke somewhere 

 above me, and peering up under the bushes I 

 saw two reddish-looking beasts, rather like pigs, 

 sneaking about above. Serow ! Chance No. 2 

 had arrived. 



I must here explain that serow are red and 

 white underneath, with black heads and necks, 



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