SKELETONIZING AN ELEPHANT. 167 



slaughtered to no purpose, and I bate all such game-butchers as 

 those of our Western Territories who have already nearly extermi- 

 nated the American bison. 



All around Moochpardi are numerous grassy glades in the 

 forest, usually of three to five acres in extent, where the ground is 

 low and moist, and the grass is sweetest and tenderest. In these 

 beautiful Httle jDastures, hedged around by the tall, dark bamboo 

 forest, the spotted deer love to feed in the early morning, before 

 the sun gets too hot, and in the late afternoon when the shadows 

 lengthen. We always found them in those places between four 

 and five o'clock in the afternoon, although, to be sure, we used to 

 happen ujDon them in all kinds of forest, and at all hours of the 

 day. After a few hours' hard work on specimens and a quiet mid- 

 day snooze in my hut, I would get on my hunting gear, call up Vera, 

 and tell him that we would "go out now." Ten minutes later we 

 would be on the look-out for game. We would go to one glade 

 after another, always coming up to them against the wind, until at 

 last we reached the right one, and our eyes would be gladdened by 

 the sight of a dozen spotted beauties, grazing quietly, or lying at 

 rest upon the gi-een sward. 



One particularly beautiful scene of this kind is stamped upon 

 my memoiy with photoga-aphic accuracy. There was a small glade 

 about the size of a city square, quite surrounded by dense bamboo 

 forest, which was a favorite feeding gi'ound for spotted deer. 

 Stealing up to this through the dark jungle, late one bright after- 

 noon, we espied in the centre of the open space a number of 

 spotted forms which were a feast for the eyes of any lover of 

 nature. Creeping up quite close to the edge of the opening, we 

 crouched behind a thick clump of bamboos and gazed in silent ad- 

 miration upon the lovely picture before us. 



Grouped together in a most charming fashion, were about sixty 

 deer of all ages and sizes, from a tiny fawn up to a splendid stag 

 with horns measuring — but I must not anticipate. How lithe, 

 graceful, and beautifully clean they all looked ! The slanting rays 

 of the sun shone fuU against their beautifully spotted sides, bring- 

 ing out the white spots in striking contrast against the bright fawn- 

 colored ground. Some were leisurely cropping the short grass, 

 giving an occasional glance into the dark and treacherous forest, and 

 others lay about at their ease, blinking lazily, and patiently grinding 

 away at their cuds, now and then drawing a long breath of content- 

 ment. Surely, the axis deer is the most beautiful of all its tribe. 



