256 A Sportswoman in India 



following our example the necessity of taking every 

 precaution against the heat. Not only wear a large 

 sold topi, but have a spine pad sewn inside the coat, 

 which should be of thin green shikar material. I 

 had a second pad hooked on outside. I often kept 

 a wet rag on my head, inside my pith helmet ; and 

 I wore dogskin gloves, minus half the fingers, 

 which enabled one to hold the burning barrels. The 

 temperature was 104 in the shade in our tents, and 

 later on 115. 



Our caravan really formed a most imposing train 

 as we set off from Warungal station. Fifty-one pack- 

 bullocks with panniers carried one hundred and sixty 

 pounds each, which consisted of guns, ammunition, 

 tents, beds, chairs, table, clothes, food and drink enough 

 to last the three of us for eight weeks, corn for our 

 ponies and the ponies of our two head shikaris, 

 filters, cash-box, etc., etc. Our own luggage had gone 

 straight through from Bangalore to Warungal with 

 our boy. It was twenty-six maunds over weight that 

 is, two thousand and eighty pounds ! It blocked up 

 the platform and alarmed the guard considerably. 



Our whole party consisted of our three selves, our 

 own boy for each of us, a syce for every pony, a 

 cook, a mati (or scullery-boy), a peon for supplies, 

 letters, etc., ten shikaris, and four bullock-men to look 

 after the bullocks. So we formed quite a camp. When 

 on the march, we started off our fifty-one pack-bullocks 

 at three o'clock in the morning, following ourselves 

 at six o'clock, marching from fifteen to twenty miles 



