76 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



The next day, in t.Jie evening, we rode to a bit of lowland be"= 

 tween the ravines and the river. On the way we surprised a lai-ge 

 wolf {Canis pallipes), making for the ravines with a black kid in his 

 mouth. As bad luck would have it, we were both without onr 

 rifles, having sent them ahead with the bearers. We gave chase at 

 once, but the wolf entered the ravines where we could not follow 

 on horseback. These brutes are very destnictive to small animals 

 of all kinds, killing goats, sheep, and calves, and running down ga- 

 zelle and antelope. The Indian Government pays a reward for 

 the killing of wolves, and in 1876, five thousand nine hundi-ed and 

 seventy-six of these miserable brutes were destroyed. 



On reaching our destination, we found several gazelles feeding 

 out in the open plain with a scattered herd of cattle, and I brought 

 down a buck at one hundred a:id thirty yards. Major Koss shot 

 a hare {Lepus ruficaudatus) for me. It jumped out of a bush 

 almost at our feet and went bounding off, when the Major made a 

 briUiant shot with his rifle, striking the hare with an explosive 

 express bullet which blew it all to pieces. The head lay ia one 

 place, the legs were scattered about in various directions, and the 

 tail hung up in the top of a little bush like a signal of distress. 



At the end of seven days' shooting we had accounted for fifteen 

 gazelle and one nil-gai, not counting smaller specimens ; and, 

 sending my lot of skins and skeletons across country by bullock- 

 cart, I returned to Etawah by rail. 



The sasin antelope, or " black buck " of sportsmen [Antelope 

 bezoartica), is another animal which is found in great numbers in 

 the Ganges-Jumna Dooab, as well as many other portions of 

 India from the Punjab to Tutucorin, very nearly to Cape Comorin. 

 In some districts they are found in immense herds of several 

 thousand individuals, and, wherever they are, they do great 

 damage to crops. It is the universal custom, or rather the ne- 

 cessity, of the natives who live in the game-infested districts, to 

 build small elevated platforms of poles out in their fields, on which 

 they patiently sit all night, beating tom-toms and shouting to keep 

 away the deer and wild pigs. As a rule, the common people of 

 India are not allowed to possess fire-arms of any description, or 

 rather no one is allowed to supply them, and hence the country, 

 notwithstanding the density of its population and the perpetual 

 hunger of its people, is quite overrun with game, some kinds of 

 which devour the crops of the agriculturists, while others prey 

 upon domestic animals and the people themselves. The British 



