CHAPTER yn. 



RAVINE DEER AND BLACK BUCK HUNTING. 



An Invitation. — Aspect of the Country. — Major Ross's Camp. — A Luxurious Es- 

 tablishment. — The Jumna Ravines. — The " Ravine Deer." — A Day's Sport. 

 — Fifteen Gazelles and a Nil-Gai. — The Sasin Antelope or " Black Buck." — 

 Animal Pests — Another Hunt with Major Ross. — Interesting Sport. — A 

 Narrow Escape. —A Stern Chase at Mid-day. — Eight Antelopes Gathered in. 

 — A Holiday at Agra. — The Taj Mehal, of course. — Taj-struck Travellers. — 

 The Trees of the North-West Provinces. 



Havtng completed my work on the river, I received a very cor- 

 dial invitation from Major and Mrs. Ross to visit them at their 

 camp, thirty-five miles below Etawah, and spend a week in hunting 

 the Indian gazelle, which quite abounded in the neighboring ra- 

 vines. Accordinglj', Carlo and I packed up my rifle and ammuni- 

 tion, a bag of powdered alum, a pot of arsenical soap, and a few 

 tools, and went by rail down the line to Paphoond station. Spend- 

 ing the night in the road bungalow, we chartered an ekka (an 

 antediluvian species of passenger cart) to take us to Major Ross's 

 camp, twelve miles south. For two hours and a haK we rattled 

 along a splendid "metalled" {i. e., macadamized) road as fine in 

 every way as any in Great Britain, so far as I have seen — another 

 evidence of British rule in India. The milestones are marked in 

 English and Hindustanee, which gives the natives to understand 

 that the English have come to stay. The road is provided with good 

 bridges, road bungalows and poHce stations, and is a type of the 

 great arterial Knes of road communication which have been con- 

 structed throughout India since the Mutiny in 1857. The Gauges- 

 Jumna Dooab, i.e., the country lying between these two waters, is 

 also being rapidly traversed by a system of irrigation canals, which 

 will render famine in this district forever impossible. 



Mud villages were almost as thick as farm-houses in Iowa, and 

 before long I found that it required good shooting to fire a rifle on 

 the level without hitting a native. And no wonder. Compared 



