88 
MY LAST STAl; AND THE QUAGMIRE. 
glad enough, the next day being Sunday, to take a rest. 
On the Moiiday, with one of my Dutch friends, we started 
at four a.m. for the same ground, and were more fortunate. 
I bowled over a good stag at a hundred and fifty yards, and 
dropped another on his tracks at a hundred and eighty 
yards, my companion also kilJtng a fine young stag. Just 
before giving up for the day I saw a stag moving away in 
the high grass ; he stood for a moment and I took a steady 
aim ; on the ball striking him he sprung up in the air and 
fell over on his back, but when I got to the place to my 
astonishment he was gone ; we followed on his tracks, and 
we could see by the footmarks that he had dashed into a 
deep quagmire where, from the bubbles which were rising, 
it was evident that he had been completely swallowed up. 
So ended my sport in Java, often carried on under great 
difficulties, principally from the fear constantly present 
amongst the natives and those conducting the beats that I 
might come to some kind of grief either by being bagged 
by a tiger or from some other cause, for which they would 
be made responsible. 
Game exists in abundance, particularly deer and hogs. 
The deer are smaller than the Indian sambur, more like 
our Red deer in colour, but with the same number of tines 
on the antlers as the sambur. The stags have a habit 
of collecting masses of reeds and swamp grass on their 
antlers which gives them a fierce look as well as a very 
remarkable appearance when a number of them are moving 
together. There is only one locality in the neighbourhood 
of Cheribon, where the Axis or spotted deer is found in a 
wild state, but they are often kept in enclosures in the same 
manner as ■ our fallow deer. If the grass had been burnt 
