50 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
deer were gross with feeding in the lush grass of 
the banks of the Ramganga River, and the result 
might be different if a stag were in hard training by 
having to go ten or twelve miles each day to water. 
In the Paétli Dun it sometimes happened that deer 
would fall and die during a short burst without 
being touched by the spear, showing that they were 
quite unfit to undertake a sharp gallop at full speed 
for even a distance of a mile or so. 
Wild-dogs appear to kill a large number of spotted- 
deer, but exactly how they do so it is difficult to 
understand. In the frequent hunts I have witnessed, 
there seemed to be no great appreciation of danger 
on the one hand, or undue hurry on the other ; 
rather, a feeling of annoyance was caused that the 
deer should bound lightly at half-speed, and that 
the dog should keep a distance of from twenty to 
thirty yards in the rear. One would also expect a 
burst to be made as the latter ran from scent to 
view, for probably the speed is with the dog for a 
short distance. But the leisurely procession passes, 
and leaves you with mixed feelings of anger and 
pity. I have never seen more than two or three 
dogs on the trail of a deer, though when not hunting 
packs of fifteen or twenty are not uncommon. I 
incline, therefore, to think that wild-dogs trust 
much to driving their prey into an ambush, and 
that this accounts for the slow pace of the run. 
The deer always make for water, and if they cross 
out of sight of the pursuers the hunt is often 
abandoned ; while the fact that often deer are found 
lying in water where the kill has taken place seems 
to point to the inference that the ambush is fre-~ 
