122 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



fSEE-T. 9, 1886- 



HUNTING IN THE HIMALAYAS. 

 Lights and Shades of an Indian Forester's Life. 



CAMP LOWER GURHWAL, Sewaliks, East India.— 

 The chief turned up a fortnight ago, and, to use a 

 native expression, "shed the light of liis countenance" on 

 my camp for the space of ten days, during which period 

 we took grave counsel together on many things, started 

 the fierce tiger in his reedy lair and slew the mighty boar 

 upon the open plain, all of which doings you will find re- 

 corded in these chi-onicles. 



A few days previous to his arrival, I heard that the 

 plains below the forest had been fixed; and the wind 

 being favorable, I got Charley to clear and burn up all 

 the refuse about the mouths of the fire lines he is clear- 

 ing, and then fixed the Ramgunga terraces. It was too 

 eaiiy in the season for a perfectly clean sweep, but it is a 

 most important measure in fii-e conservancy for the for- 

 ests to bum the outside gi-ass, while that in the tree shade 

 and the forest floor generally is still too green and damp 

 for ignition. This done, the danger from fire is restricted 

 to fires generated within the forest, and this being di- 

 vided into blocks by cleared fire lines, there is every pros- 

 pect of confining a fire to the block in wliich it occurs. 

 Besides this, a systematic firing of the open glades 

 restricts the game cover to manageable limits, and not 

 only facilitates the dri-sdng it out from the heavy green 

 clumps, but gives a chance for a shot when it is out. We 

 forest men do not generally touch on tliis matter in 

 ofiicial correspondence, but between my chief and me 

 there is a great deal of private correspondence on forest 

 matters, and G. (the chief) had expressed a hope that the 

 fixing wordd be done against his arrival. 



I went two days' march to the eastern bormdary of my 

 division to meet him, getting some very good practice 

 with my shotgun among black partridge, peafowl and 

 jungle cocks (bantams) by the way, and bowled over a 

 four-homed antelope, the first I had ever seen. G. got 

 into camp almost as soon as I, a big pair of homs pro- 

 truding over the elephant's harmches, showing that he 

 too had lingered by the way. It was a cheetul or spotted 

 deer, which, together with some birds, he had bagged en 

 route. We were soon at breakfast, G.'s man subscribing 

 a ham, some pate defoisgras and other "Europe" dainties; 

 but my feUow's hunter's round of spiced beef, and a cold 

 game pie with birds set in the jelly from a haimch of 

 venison, commanded a fair share of attention, and washed 

 down with G.'s claret disposed us to be communicative, 

 as soon as the business in hand should leave us at leisure 

 for any more connected conversation than appreciative 

 remarks on the viands between mouthfuls. Life has its 

 lofty aims, and sooner or later the world regenerators may 

 reap the reward of their labors, but the hruiter who pro- 

 vides himself ^vith a good cook, and comes home to a 

 midday breakfast after six hours in the hunting field, ex- 

 periences a measiire of reward which marks liim out as 

 one endowed with the lofty capacity of adapting his 

 means to his ends. 



Charley's adventure* was the first discusbed, and G. 

 was pretty strong in his condemnation of Ram Buksh's 

 cowardice, but G. was himself incapable of physical fear, 

 and entertained the most supreme contempt for any man 

 capable of showing the white feather. The man-eater 

 next came on the tapis, and G. was unable to divest him- 

 self of the idea, that the tiger I had bagged was the one 

 the Ghoorkas professed to have hit— in fact the man-eater. 

 He argued that as the head of the last victim had not 

 been eaten, the hair from his previous victims may have 

 passed through, but I rested on the extreme slowness of 

 the digestive process in tigers, and expressed my convic- 

 tion that the man-eater was still at large, and probably 

 suffering only from a flesh wound. 



Later in the dav a discussion arose as to whether we 

 should march tlnrough the forest or take the plams. Now 

 that the grass was burnt, all but the green clumps m damp 

 hollows, there was much more chance of a tiger below 

 the road, but the fact that the man-eater liad never been 

 heard of below the road determined us to take the forest. 

 G had two elephants with him, and the three would be 

 ample to beat up any of the small nullahs in the forests. 

 We were away soon after daylight and stiaick m about 

 four miles from the road, going up the creek from the 

 forester's hut, and beating all the grass clumps en route. 

 We put out several hog deer and birds, but decided not 

 to fire at anything but cats as long as we were where there 

 was any chance of finding one. After striking west into 

 the forest we kept the elephants about 100yds. apart, G. 

 and Ion either flank, the baggage elephant in the middle. 

 We had gone about three miles, when I saw a panther 

 glide away from the center elephant and head m G. s 

 direction. I gave a whistle and G. was instantly on the 

 alert, rifle in hand. Diverging to my right to get a share 

 in the fun if possible, I got sight of a narrow grass glade 

 ahead and saw G. stop his elephant and stand prepared 

 to shoot. I reached the edge of the glade before 

 he fixed, and at about fifty yards from him, 

 and stood on the qui vive for liim to spring the game. 

 The sharp crack of a rifle rang out. I saw the panther 

 wheel round, and the next moment he was on the ele- 

 phant's head. My elephant was in motion immediately, 

 but the motions of G.'s elephant were still more hvely. 

 Turning sharp round, he charged at a big tree that stood 

 near him, and hterally flattened the panther's hindquar- 

 ters against it. The beast howled and relaxed his hold, 

 and the elephant, drawing back, let him fall, only to drop 

 on his knees on him, and crush the last breath out with 

 his ponderous weight. G. had dropped his rifle, and was 

 holding on to the howdah like grim death Avith both 

 hands, the howdah swaying from side to side, like a 

 small boat in a storm. He had barely escaped being 

 thrown out headforemost when the elephant dropped on 

 his knees. As to dying, the panther declined to die, 

 although the elephant had one knee on his shoulder and 

 the other on his ribs, and flattened him. He still spat and 

 growled, but in a minnte or two the mahout persuaded 

 the elephant that it was all over, and got him to rise, 

 when G. took his rifle and finished the bmte, which was 

 laden on the baggage elephant. 



Some two miles further on we came to a little rise ana 

 Baw a gerao stag standing on the crest, somethmg short 

 of a himdred yards. G. motioned for me to fire, which 



*Se& POBEBX AND Stkbam, Oct. 15, 1886. 



I did, and the same instant he charged down on us, fall- 

 ing as he reached G.'s elephant. It requii'ed the imited 

 strength of the whole party to load him, and this accom- 

 plislied we pushed on, crossing and beating up several 

 nullahs with good cover, in one of which G. shot an old 

 boar, which we left lying. Had we been close to a per- 

 manent camp I should have remonstrated, especially as 

 we had a couple of Hindoo mountaineers ■w'ith us to heli? 

 load him, but the Mahomedans affect to despise pork eat- 

 ers, and to think highly of a Sahib who keeps himself 

 clean from tlie contamination: of course it would not 

 have been right to load liim on the same elephant with 

 the gerao, as this would have x>re vented the mahouts 

 from eating the latter, so I passed on without comment, 

 although 1 know nothing more appetizing for breakfast 

 than a well cured and smoked wild boar ham. 



Getting near camp we put up quite a lot of peafowl, of 

 which G. bagged three and I two. I shot a jungle cock, 

 and we had quite a show of game. The gerao's flesh is a 

 rather coarse venison, inferior to hog deer or spotted deer, 

 but the round makes a very fa,u- hunter's round, and my 

 kliansaraan reserved one, boiling down the rest of the 

 leg for jelly; the camp followers shared tlie balance. 



The second day G. determined to take the lower route, 

 as he knew of several likely spots for tiger, and argued 

 that although the ijian-eater always killed above the road 

 he might, nevertheless, go below for C[uiet between meals. 

 We had gone about seven miles, beating up a great many 

 likely spots when, approacliing a large patch of perhaps 

 twenty acres of high grass, a tiger wallied out and sur- 

 veyed'us leisurely. He was about eighty yards off, and 

 seeing G. stop and raise his rifle, I followed suit. We 

 fired together and the tiger bounded into the cover some- 

 what more hurriedly than he came out. We hastened to 

 the spot at wliich he had stood when we fired and saw no 

 blood, but on coming to the cover we saw a good smear, 

 and pushed in. Closing up the elephants to about ten 

 yards apart, we beat up and down for an hour \vithoiit 

 springing our game, and then sku-ting the far side of it 

 got on the blood trail again leading to another patch of 

 grass about half a mile off. Reaching this we put in the 

 elephants, and after a while I got a glimpse of the tiger's 

 face on my left — just an instant's ghmpse in passing. 

 Whispering the mahout we backed the elephants a couple 

 of yards, but the face was gone; so signaling G. to wheel 

 round, I kept my stand until we got into line again , when 

 we beat outward; but the tiger escaped us, and with a 

 few words of explanation we formed line again. 



Thi^ time we headed straight for Mr. Stripes, and heard 

 him rush, but he declined to break on either side, and we 

 l^ushed on to the end, about two hundred yards off. We 

 saw nothing of him and concluded that he must have got 

 round us. G. brought his elephant up to me to consult, 

 and as we stood there my mahout looked up and pointed 

 at the short grass; there was blood. There was a broad, 

 open plain before us, black from the recent fire, but at 

 15yds. from where we stood was a small grass plot — per- 

 haps 15 by 20ft.— the grass not more than 4ft. high. 

 Advancing on this the tiger broke cover with a growl, and 

 dashed away toward the first cover. G. and I got in a 

 shot each, and as the beast sped away we gave him our 

 second barrels, but he held on his comse and we followed, 

 tracking the blood aU the way to tlie fixst cover. Judging 

 from the blood lost he was evidently hard hit. Reaching 

 the cover it was impossible to track the blood any further, 

 so we pushed in and beat about blindly for another hour, 

 o-oing through and through it, but without result. At 

 Tength G. suggested that one should skirt the off side and 

 examine it for blood, while the other kept watch on the 

 near side. This was done, and there being no trace, we 

 determined to go down to the south end and fire the grass, 

 one keepmg guard on either side. 



We marched down in fine through the grass, still on 

 the lookout, rifle in hand, when the baggage elephant 

 o-ave a start,' and backed round. There Avas no motion m 

 the grass, anb G. and I converged on the spot, where I 

 might have seen nothing had not the elephant opened out 

 the grass with his tiamk, and displayed the foe lying 

 dead. Congratulating ourselves on not havmg fired tlie 

 grass and spoiled tlie skin, we got the tiger on the pack 

 elephant and commenced to investigate the holes m his 

 skin; the important part was the right side which he had 

 presented to our first fulisade, for if only one ball had 

 hit the ownersliip of the skin would have been decided 

 at once, but both balls had gone home. G.'s express 

 bullet high up the shoulder, and my No. 10 spherical 

 behind the ribs. Neither of these could have been given 

 later for when the beast broke from the small patch, his 

 quarters and left side were toward us. The ownership 

 of tlie skin was consequently a draw, to be settled at 

 parting. Tliree of the other shots had told, and on care- 

 ful analysis it was found that when we put hkn up the 

 second time my shot had entered the saddle and proved 

 the death wound, and G.'s cut through the base of the 

 ear, my second barrel was a miss and G.'s opened a great 

 gash in the quarters. 



We now determined to make straight for camp; we 

 were at least three miles from Ramgunga, and another 

 eight miles, thence to Boksar to which we had sent on 

 our camels, and moving off at a brisk pace reached the 

 river at about 11 o'clock. We staid about ten minutes 

 talking to the forester, and then turned up stream, and 

 had got about a mile on our way when the forester came 

 dashing after us on his pony with the staithng mtelh- 

 gence that the man-eater had bagged aman nottwohoma 

 a<ro about five miles back and two miles m from the road. 

 We looked at each other. Had we come through the for- 

 est above the road we should probably liave been at or 

 near the spot at the moment. And now_ what was to be 

 done. It was not, as G. said, a question whether we 

 should go after the tiger; that was settled, but what ar- 

 rangements should be made. Tlie first step was to recall 

 the camels and pitch the camp at the station we had just 

 left Arrived there we sent the baggage elephant to f etcJi 

 fodder for the others, and giving ours each a feed ot raw- 



sugar, and taking a supply for later m the day, we next 

 thSught of ourselves. It was hard to say when we would 

 next sit down to a square meal, but plenty of unleavened 

 cakes of coarse meal were forthcoming on demand, and ot 

 these we took one each; we took a tomahawk along too, 

 in case we might decide on sitting up at mght. Both G. 

 and I had a good ti-acker with us, both men who might be 

 relied on to behave pluckily in danger, and on their ex- 

 pressing their readiness to go with us on foot, we deter- 

 mined to leave the elephants at the scene of the raid,while 

 we foUowed the ti-ail,the mahouts being ordered to come 

 up if they heard shooting, 



We found the frightened bamboo cutters in the road, 

 but encom-aged by our presence they accompanied us 

 back, pointed out the place of seizure and retumed to 

 their work, whUe we distributed cartridges to our native 

 allies. They soon picked up the trail; blood was seen 

 rarely and at long intervals, the men followed the 

 trail slowly but unhesitatingly, not a word was spoken; 

 sometimes' the trail was invisible for a short distance, 

 when one would recognize signs a few yards ahead, and 

 pointing it out to the other, the trail was taken up again. 

 We had gone about a mile and a half through a hghtly 

 timbered forest with heavy clumps of bamboo, when one 

 of the natives dropped on one knee and advanced his ^n 

 ready for action. Pressing up we saw a man's foot just 

 visible, the body being concealed by a clump of bamboos 

 ten or twelve feet through. Leaving me and one native 

 to watch the spot, G. ovept back noiselessly to command 

 the other side; but all was stUl, and touching the native 

 on his knees before me, I beckoned him to back and edge 

 sidewards so as to command a better view. A small clump 

 of bamboo facilitated om* object, and crawling round this, 

 the native first and then I, commanded a full view of tlie 

 body. The tiger was gone. Making signs to G. we re- 

 joined and took a hasty look at the body, of which one 

 thigh bone had been picked clean; and after a circuit of 

 fifty yards, during which we passed two on each side of 

 every bamboo clump, we concluded that om- friend had 

 probably gone to sleep or to drmk; so while G. and I kept 

 watch, the other two cut bamboos, and in a quarter of an 

 hour two muchans were built in adjoining trees and we 

 were in our perches. There we sat from 3 o'clock in the 

 afternoon until the next dawn noiseless and watchful, but 

 the tiger never appeared. He had seen or heard us com- 

 ing and stolen away. As regards my own sensations, I 

 was stiff, sore and hungry, and sadly in want of a smoke, 

 and was not sorry when we once more sighted our tents 

 on the Ramgunga. Shikaree, 

 [to be continued.] 



SAM LOVEL'S CAMPS.— V. 



SAM and Antoine were to embark in the log canoe, 

 while Pelatiah, still misti-usting the treacherous deep, 

 was to hunt along shore following the directions of the 

 experienced Canadian. But first he pulled off his trous- 

 ers and socks, which he Avrung out and hung by the &ce. 

 Considering the chances of another bath he debated a Ut- 

 tle whether he would not better go forth bare-legged, but 

 at last concluded for the sake of seemliness and conveni- 

 ence to put on a pair of trousers that he hauled out of the 

 depths of the carpet-bag. 



The sun shone with almost summer-like fervor on the 

 flat, wooded sliore and clear, still shallows, Avhere every 

 sodden leaf and weed and sunken stick upon the bottom 

 was revealed. The first frogs were sunning tliemselves 

 on the fringe of floating and stranded last year's rushes 

 that bordered the water, and on every side their crack- 

 ling pur arose, as continuous, if not as loud, as the throng- 

 ing blackbirds' incessant clamor, a medley of sweet and 

 harsh notes, like the gurgle of brooks and the slow drip 

 of water into echoing pools, with the grating and clatter 

 and sharp click of pebbles tossed upon rocks. As Pela- 

 tiah slowly walked along the shore, at almost every step 

 a frog startled him, scurrying over the weeds with spas- 

 modic leaps and splashing into the water. Then a shadow 

 flitted before him, and looking up, he saw a great hawk 

 wheeling in a wide circle overhead, his wings golden 

 brown with the sunlight sliining through them. 



"A hen hawk 's better 'n nothin' to show," he said, cock- 

 ing his gun. and taking a slow upright aim. He was 

 standing almost in the water with his back toward it, and 

 the hawk's course tending behind him, he was leaning 

 backward to the utmost of bis balance when he fired, and 

 the recoil of the gun set him down with a sudden splash that 

 awed all the neighboring frogs into silence. After scramb- 

 hng to his feet he cast a quick glance about him while the 

 retm-ning pellets of shot were yet raining down, to see if 

 any one had witnessed his mishap, then one in search of 

 the hawk. The bird was still circling imdisturbed m a 

 gi-eat upward spiral, and becoming a fleck of brown against 

 the blue. "Wet agin! an' not so much as a bow-fin to 

 show for 't! I might ha' knowed better 'n to shoot. I 

 couldn't hit a tew storey haouse a flyin'. But I kep' my 

 gun dry, 'n' who cares? That 'ere hen hawk don't, sar- 

 tin." So embracing the nearest tree, he emptied the water 

 out" of his boots, then rchjaded his gmi and went forward. 

 The wetting of his nether parts being now accomplished 

 and not to be dreaded, he was no longer "cat-footed' but 

 waded slowly and cautiously to every likely looking 

 place, resemblmg, as he craned his long neck and scanned 

 the water near him, some enormous heron seeking his 

 prev. A slight commotion of the siu-face attracted his 

 attention, and warily approaching the spot, he saw the 

 back fin and tail of some large fish gently moving. 

 "Bow-fin or no bow-fin, I'll try ye, he whispered 

 to himself, and remembering Antome's last mjimc- 

 tion to shoot at a fish "way under where he was. 

 he blazed away. Before the boil of the water had sub- 

 sided he saw the white bellies of two motioidess fish shin- 

 ning out of the bubbles and disturbed sediment, and 

 splashing to them he plunged his arm in to the elbow and 

 seized the largest, and tucking it under his left arm, 

 cn-abbed the other. Just then he saw another that had 

 been stunned by his shot, feebly wi-ithing its fins ajid 

 evidentlv gathering Avits and strength for a speedy de- 

 parture." How to secure it with one fish in his right 

 hand, his gun in his left and another fish hugged under 

 that arm was a question that he speedily solved by seiz- 

 ing his right-hand fish by the tail with Ins teeth. But 

 the free fish, the largest of the three, had now recovered 

 and as he reached for it, slipped through his fingers, and 

 with a great sm-ge disappeared, leaving only its slune in 

 his grasp. After one longing regretful look, he waded 

 ashore with his prizes, and depositing them at a safe dis^ 

 tance from the water, sat down upon a log and gloated 

 over them, stretching them to their fullest length, ar- 

 ranging then- fins, thentiu-ning them over, then "hettmg 

 them separately and together. They were of about olbs 

 weight each, and most undeniably pickerel, the fish of aU 

 that the mountaineer prizes most, in spite of his mtmiate 

 acquaintance with the clean, gamy, beautiful and tooth- 

 some trout of his native sti-eams and ponds. His admrr- 

 ation of this shark of the lowland fresh waters has spoiled 



the trout fishing in many a mountain lakelet, where the 

 survival, not of the fittest, but of the biggest, the hun- 

 griest and most fecund has been proved by the mtroduc- 

 tion of this alien. , , , , 



In possession of the largest pickerel he had ever seen, 



