TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



fixedly at us. Presently he gave a stamp with his foot, 

 and I knew we were discovered, and that there was not a 

 moment to lose, so, sitting up, I covered his chest, and taking 

 a careful aim as if I was competing for a £1000 prize, I 

 fired. 



The ibex gave a great leap upwards and fell over, dead. 

 He was a splendid beast, very old and scarred all over, 

 and the horns measured forty-eight and a half inches round 

 the curve. We were well satisfied with our prize ; but it 

 was many hours past sundown when we reached our camp, 

 at the foot of the mountains, thoroughly done up, and with 

 every bone in our bodies aching after our tremendous 

 climb. 



On another occasion an ibex I had wounded crawled up 

 a rocky precipice, some three thousand feet high, where it 

 was impossible to follow him. With my powerful field- 

 glasses I had just made out he was badly wounded — the 

 bullet wound on his shoulder being distinctly visible — when 

 suddenly he gave a lurch forward, and, looking no larger 

 than an orange, came rolling down to the valley below. 



On going up to him I was mortified to find, however, 

 that in his rapid, but probably involuntary descent, one 

 of his magnificent horns had been broken off at the point. 

 Nevertheless he was a fine specimen, the horns measuring 

 forty-six and a half inches round the curve. 



So far as I know, ibex shooting in India is always done 

 in the way I have described. In Persia and Afghanistan, 

 however, I believe they are generally shot in drives, but 

 this must be poor sport. 



***** 



In the year my services in the Khandesh District 



were interrupted for a while by my transfer, as District 

 Superintendent of Police, to the District of Sholapur, where, 

 though the work was much easier than at Khandesh, there 

 was no big-game shooting. However, small game was 

 fairly plentiful, but what I most enjoyed was the pig- 

 sticking, a sport for which the district was quite celebrated 

 in those days, and probably is still. 



Although hog-hunting, or pig-sticking — to give it its 

 more familiar title — is not to be classed with big-game 

 shooting, it is considered, and justly so, the finest sport in 

 98 



