268 
THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
[Oct. 1, 1900. 
fire, confiilenc in iny two or three previous 
triumphs, I never doubteol of success. The foliajje 
was .so tliick about iiim that I could not see his 
iiead distinctly, but his quiet advance, fur !ie took 
now and then a slow step onwards, jnoiiiised soon 
to bring him into a gap near me aliout a yard 
broad. Into this, accordingly, I crept and ciou- 
ched down, six orseven yards from where I tliDught 
he would pass. For full live rniiiuLes 1 wnited. The 
elephant vi^as quiet, evidently dozing, bat now and 
then he would siving his trunk against the t!;in 
stems on either side, causing a shiver and rustle of 
their foliage. I could hear the deep rumble of his 
inside, and the great breaths that once or twice 
bust up from his lungs ; I could see his forefeet 
distrinctly, but no vital spot. Then he came for- 
ward and stopped, the brute, at the very edge of 
the gap, his train covered hy a tiiickish sapling, 
his forehead and trunk in full view. Not daring 
to stir I waited, for an age as it seemed, noting 
every wrinkle of t!ie loos.^ly-hanging ti unk, every 
biiiik of the half-closed eye, every stain and blem- 
ish of the tusks ; the lettone, the -iraier, stood two 
feet beyond the lip and was broken sharply at tlie 
end ; the other was a foot longer. I do not know 
how long the animal stood there, bus at last round 
heswungintothe gap towards me and as Iluirriedly 
raised the rifle and pulled the trigger he wm t{iwering 
above nie barely five yards olf. I was n'o close to 
liim and felt my aim had been too high ; his advauc ; 
had taken me by surprise. 
But a two-ounce bullet hits hard and this one 
knocked the tusker over like a nine pin, as 
the tremendous crash of biancli an^l sapling 
plainly told, a torn-'iff' twig hitting my ihoulder. 
The smoke hung very dense, and I did notlike to 
advance, but a slnill trumpeting and continued 
crasliing showed that the beast wu.s si niggling to 
his feet and when I plucked up courage and went 
forward, he was on his legs, his feet far apart, his 
body swaying drunkenly fi'oin side to side, his head 
buried in the branches. Of course I ought now to 
have fired at his heart, but I was a beginner and 
did not, trusting to the common rule in Ceylon 
which bids one hre only at the brain. Aire idy he 
began to make some staggering surt of way for- 
ward. He got^baek inio the gap but never expo.sed 
his head ; his pace quicicened into a run, and then 
wildly trumpeting, he rushed headlong forward, 
crashing, smashing, rending, straight through the 
thick arid cumbered forest. My dash in pursuit 
hindered at every step by the chaos of destruction 
in his wake, was liopeless ; the bushes closed be- 
hind his tail am! i saw liim no more. 
Then come five pages of jiangle descrip- 
tion, in following the elephant, being be- 
nighted and in getting back to the hut : — 
I have had the luck to kno.va little of many 
jungles, and they are all delightful ; from the 
muddy fastnesses of the Sunderbunds and its mys- 
terious waterways arciied in with pahns, to the 
glowing autumn )jinewoods of the Himalayas ; from 
the vast grass coverts of the Terai to rocky bamboo- 
clad hills and uplainl teak-forests, black, burned 
and leafless in tlie Central Indian summer. But for 
Ceylon I keep an extra warm corner in my heart, 
poor though its tj-nphies mostly are, '] here first I 
shot big game ; there lirst I sav,' the jungle and 
drank in and nnule my own iis spirit. Sad v/oiild 
I be to think that h-pirit conlii <!vrr }n:^.vi'i[te or lliat 
I am never again to follow tiir()u_;h !he foru.st some 
one or other of its greater denizens, ami to be th';rp, 
more ti'uly tlnin it is possible elsewliere, my own 
master ov/l'jg allegia.ice to no njan, 
CHEAP TEA FOR INDIAN VILLAGES. 
I am absolutely ignorant with regard to tiic tea 
trade, but I have read a £;ood doa: lately about the 
" booming " of Indian teas, and it aeems to me that 
one openiag which mis;ht be mitdc ti;o of is neg- 
lected, so I venture, very humbly, to point it oat. 
I mean the sale of chea-p tea, or lea dust, amoDg 
the poorer class of natives in ar^riouUural distri..-ti;. 
These districts are oftan malari.jas, and officials 
v/ho have to do a good deal of camping find that 
their servants keep free from fever if supplied 
v/ith tea v;hile they are oul;. I happened to' live 
for a short time in a small sta,tio!i in Behar 
where fever w;u very prevj.ient among the 
natives. My servants con.-:idered "a little tea" a 
remedy for all ill.^, and the demands on my tea- 
caddy were so great, that' at last I procured a 
quancitv of tea dnat at four atinas a pound from 
a g-i.rden in Dj,iieeling, and told my servants that 
they mi£>hc have as much of is as they liked z.t 
that price, paying the freight mysc f. The 
whole supply, 10 lb., was gone ia a day, and 
I could have got rid of four times the amoant 
for n^any of my neij^hbours* servants were 
anxious to buy it too. The cheapest tea to be 
had in the station was adulterated tea-dnst, 
sold by the local Whiteley at seven annas a pound ! 
Since tlian I have always kept a supply of dust 
lor my servants, they appreciate it greatly, and buy 
it most Vv-illiugly at -i annas a pound. Mos't of them, 
I believe, drink tea at leiist once a day, and thty 
declare that it keeps them in good health. Whether 
thi;-j IS really so 1 do not kuow, bat they certainly 
keep very well, although this place has a bad uama 
for fever, and once v.'heu the supply of dust ran out, 
and it was some time before a fresh lot arrived, so 
many began to ail that I was obliged to get them some 
more exp=n.dve tea from the nearest station. I believe 
the native jiesaric, or druggists, sell a dreadful com- 
pound which they call te.i, and I know of one enter- 
prising servant, in a particularly malarioua district, 
v/ho buj s cheap tea dust, through a relative workiufj 
on some tea garden, and sells it to the villagers at 
8 mnas a pound. 
E very large village has a bazaar once or twice a week, 
and I have iv d'ubt th^i, cheap te^. would find a 
reudy sale on th^se o^c i.-ioas, ar it could be disposed 
of by employing men to take it round from vilbge 
to village, like the native pedlars or soudac/ars wlio 
sell cloth and otiier cheap articles. — Tea. — Indian 
Gardeninrj and Planting Sept. 6. 
— ^ 
GREEN TEA IN THE NORTH-WEST 
HIMALAYAS. 
In recent number of Indian Gardening and 
Planning, a correspondent of ^yours remarked that 
he was unaware that green tea had ever been ex- 
tensively manufactured in India. That hs is, in 
error as to the above, the followiiig facts will shew. 
Up to about ten or twelve yt .MSago, the districts ' of 
Dehra Duu, Karigra ■mi KLi.iiLion, in the North- 
West Himalayas, coafiaod their attention solely 
to green teas, which w;U'e ail exported at very 
profitable rates to Ivabul and Central Asia. 
We found the manufacture simple as well as 
remunerative, as the cost per pound was far less 
than that of black tea. The qualities preferred were 
Young Hyson, Bysoi', and Gunpowder, all of which 
had, however, to bs entirely free of dust or broken 
tea, which sold separately at something above cost 
price. Ill speaking of my ov/n district, the Dun, 
I reni:inb'n- the time when Central Asian merchants 
visited th gardens early in eneh ye.'.r, aod cheerfully 
advanced !;irr;e sums to secuie the whole season's 
crop ; HiOd later on, :iiter the raius, they used to 
return with their own c:imeis and carts and buy up 
all the tea, for cash down, that the gardens could 
produce: in fact the d.'ir;a;id generally exceeded the 
supply. The tea was simply packed in gunny bags, 
liued with some thin cloth within. Each bag con- 
