-weighing 13 to the pound inclosed in a thin linen patch. 
We went about a mile apross a grassy plain/and tJien 
entered a tract of reed-like grass eight or ten feet high. 
On several occasions we heard animals a few yards dis- 
tant rushing away, but could not see what they were. 
Sometimes we arrived at open spaces where the grass was 
thinner and only three or four feet high. After walking 
in single file for about an hour I had just reached a space 
of this kind when a hog deer galloped across it at a dis- 
tance of so yards. The express bullet struck the center 
of the shoulder, killing the animal on the spot, and knock- 
ing him on to his back with the feet in the air. I had 
scarcely reloaded when another deer rushed past from the 
same place. I did not swing the rifle forward quite 
enough to allow for his speed, so the bullet went through 
the back ribs and the deer disappeared in the tall grass. 
One of the villagers, greatly excited, ran after it, and 
found it lying dead about twenty yards further on. 
After opening and cleaning the deer, I sent them to the 
camp in charge of one coolie and one rillager. (A hog 
deer when grallocked is not very heavy, although, like 
most other wild animals, it is much larger than the speci- 
mens usually seen in zoological gardens.) I next went 
along the edge of a sheet of water which appeared a mile 
in length and 50 to 60 yards broad, the shallow parts 
being choked with weeds and grass. While enjoying the 
sight of various kinds of water fowl and other birds that 
\vere swimming or flying round, I found a python coiled 
among some short grass in water a few inches deep. His 
head was as large as the back of my hand, and he ap- 
peared to be IS or 16 feet long. I aimed with the rifle 
at the center of the head, which was nof more than a yard 
from the muzzle, and felt sure of killing him on the spot, 
but the snake uncoiled and dived like a flash of lightning 
into the deep water, from whence he did not reappear. 
The bullet probably struck in front of the brain, which 
is very small in those animals. We then made a circuit 
of some miles through the tall grass without seeing any 
game, and returned on the other side of the sheet of 
water. It was a glorious day, with brilliant sunshine and 
the temperature not higher than during an English sum- 
mer. I sat on the bank to rest and watch the birds. On 
the opposite side of the pond a duck was paddling about 
with a brood of half-grown young ones. In a short time 
an otter appeared and endeavored to catch a duckling 
by stalking them from behind the tufts of grass. After 
several failures, he tried another stratagem. Going into 
the deep water he raised his head slightly above the sur- 
face and noted the exact position of a duckling, then 
dived, with the evident intention of seizing it by the legs, 
but the young birds were too quick and watchful. With- 
out appearing to be much alarmed they eluded tlie otter 
every time by darting suddenly aside with the help of 
their wings, and at last he gave up the attempt and went 
away. The sun was then getting low, and we started for 
the camp. On the way home I saw the horns and head 
of a hog deer standing 70 yards away. The grass was 
short and thin enough to allow the edge of the back 
to be seen; so guessing where the chest must be^ I sent 
a bullet through the center of the shoulders, killing him 
in his tracks. . 
(It may appear strange to some naturalists to read _ot 
a duck breeding so far south as India; for all birds raise 
their young at the northerly limit of their migrations. 
There are, however, a few kinds of ducks, teal and grebes, 
which certainly remain in the country all throitgh the 
hot season, hiding, I think, in beds of tall reeds. They 
appear with the young broods in January. I find m an 
old note-book that on another occasion, when walking- 
near our camp, I saw a troop of seven or eight otters in 
a pond, trying to catch some water hens withous success. 
The birds watched the otters when diving, and flew out of 
reach before they came to the surface.) 
Four days after the above mentioned excursion, l had 
sufficient leisure to go again into the jungle, and sent for 
the two villagers who had previously accompanied me. 
One of them said that he knew a part of the forest where 
some cheetul (axis deer) might be found, so I hired _a 
third man, in addition to my two coolies, to assist in 
case anything heavy had to be can-ied home. 
After walking two or three miles and seeing only some 
wild pigs, at which I did not fire, we reached a broad 
belt of tall trees with high bushes between the trunks. 
I walked quietly, accompanied by the villager who had 
told me about the deer, and leaving the other men as far 
behind as they could be without losing sight of us. We 
went in this way for perhaps half an hour, when the vil- 
lager stopped and pointing in front whispered that he 
saw some cheetul. I looked carefully, but could dis- 
tinguish nothing until, after some moments, the deer 
moved away. The instant they started, portions of their 
coats were plainly visible, but the bushes were so very 
thick that it was impossible to judge where the vital 
parts of their bodies were, so I abstained from firing, 
having a horror of letting animal? escape wounded to 
die uselesslv. While the deer stood still their dark red 
coats covered with white spots blended exactly with the 
m.asses of leaves upon which the blaze of the sun was 
falling. 
Natives living in the jungles have a great advantage 
over Europeans in being able to distinguish game quickly. 
This is owing to their being accustomed to the forests 
and to their eyes being less dazzled by the brilliant sun- 
shine. I believe also that their sharp sight is partly due 
to iheir rarely drinking anything stronger than water. 
Europeans improve very considerably after a few months' 
experience, but they never seem to acquire the extraor- 
dinary power of vision common among villagers living 
in wild districts ; such, for instance, as_ seeing green fruit- 
eating pigeons when sitting in the middle of a mass of 
green leaves in the shady part of a tree; or a red-coated 
antelope on an open red plain at such a distance that a 
European can hardly distinguish him with: the, help of a 
bmocular glass. „ , . , - . • 
After the deer had gone we walked in another direction, 
and I kept well in front of all the men for the sake of 
greater silence. We passed over a mile or more of 
ground, when I saw part of the coats of some axis deer 
amono- the bushes 60 yards distant, and soon distin- 
guished the shoulder of one, at which I fired the express 
rifle The deer walked round in a circle of about four 
yards diameter and dropped dead, the others galloping 
instantly out of sight. On reaching the spot where it lay, 
I was sorry to find that I had killed a doe, but she was 
very fat and, when cleaned, proved to he barren. I. cni: 
a pole v/ith a small American ax that I had bought 
twelve years before when in Canada, and sent the deer 
to my tent. She was slung in as compact a form as possi- 
ble so as not to incommode the men, by slitting through 
each hind leg a little above the hock, passing each fore- 
leg through the slit, and fixing it with a skewer, then 
tying the head tightly to them. 
After this we went some miles without seeing any 
game, but the beauty of the scenery well made up for 
that. , The ground was formed of low rolling hills with 
smair streams between them, and covered with trees of 
all sizes, with open spaces like the aisles of cathedrals. 
Some of the clumps of trees were joined together by 
tangled masses of rope-like -creepers with woody stems 
from one to three inches in diameter. (I think these 
were a species of Bauhinia.) Other trees were covered 
with the before-mentioned "elephant creeper" (Argyrein 
speciosa). 
I walked for a mile or so along a ridge of land border- 
ing a swamp, a favorite kind of cover for cheetul, and 
came to a sloping glade where a flock of jungle fowl 
{Gallus ferrugineus) were feeding. I shot one for the 
sake of preserving the skin. In shape, size and color, it 
was almost exactly like an English game cock. The hens 
were rtiuch smaller in proportion, resembling brown ban- 
tams. Jungle fowl are excellent for the table, and T might 
have killed more, but they obstinately persisted in run- 
ning. I had no dog to make them fly, and did not like 
to shoot them on the ground. 
A few miles further on we came to an open piece of 
land covered with short turf and with a pond about two 
acres in extent, where a few ducks were paddling among 
the reeds. After examining it all round and finding that 
there were no fresh tracks of large game, I took the 
shatgim and killed two ducks, the others flying away. 
- vThe evening was now at hand, and we started for the 
C?inip, passing a herd of pigs which quickly bolted out of 
sight. -The sun had set and the Hght was beginning to 
fade when Ave emerged from the trees into a tract of tall 
grass, dried to the color of straw. Apparently there had 
been a fire in it during the previous year, perhaps caused 
by lightning, for there were several open places like lanes, 
covered with a short, green turf. In one of these at 160 
yards distance; stood the largest and most splendid axis 
stag I have ever seen. For a long shot like that I pre- 
fer sitting down with an elbow on each knee, but in this 
instance there was no time to do so. The stag had no- 
ticed us and seemed about to move, so I fired oft'hand, 
aiming a trifle above the center of the shoulder to allow 
tor the drop of the bullet, and he instantly sprang cut of 
sight into the tall grass. I followed the tracks and found 
him lying dead about 80 yards further on. The bullet 
had struck rather too low, grazing the heart and tearing 
a large hole through both lungs. The solid base rested 
against the skin on the opposite, side of the chest. 
The antlers formed an almost perfect equilateral 
triangle, for a string stretched horizontally from tip to 
tip measured 29 inches, and from each tip to the base 
2gV2 inches. I helped the three men in carrying the deer, 
and it was hard work for as. The land was swampy in 
many places, and we had two streams to cross, so we did 
not reach the camp until long after dark. 
Two days afterward I went on a short excursion, but 
only killed one buck hog deer, and made bad shooting at 
him. He was on a plain covered with low bushes, and 
gave a running shot at not more, I think, than 40 yards 
distance. The bullet struck too far back and did not stop 
him. I followed the tracks aridihad another running shot, 
missing him altogether. Following him again, he bolted 
from some bushes less than thirty yards away, and the 
bullet passed through the fleshy part of the arm, quite 
four inches below the elbow. It was only after starting 
him a fourth time that I hit the right place and killed 
him. 
One of the commissariat elephants had become "must," 
broken loose and escaped into the forests. (Must is a 
term meaning a state of excitement to which some male 
elephants are liable at certain seasons, and which lasts 
two, three, or more months, during which they are very 
dangerous to approach.) Before finding the hog deer I 
saw this elephant standing under a tree about 200 yards 
away, and I took care to make a circuit well on the lee- 
ward side to prevent him scenting us. When the battery 
returned to the station, some of the mahouts (as the 
drivers are named) were left behind in order to recapture 
the elephant. While they were lying around a fire at 
night he stalked into the midst of them. All escaped by 
climbing trees except his own mahout, who probably had 
too much confidence in his authority over the beast. The 
poor fellow was seized and instantly killed. The elephant 
lemained at large for some time, and at last had to be 
shot, as there seemed no chance of recapturing him, and 
he had acquired the habit of knocking down the huts of 
villages at night. If not destroyed he would probably 
have killed some of the people while escaping from them. 
" The approach of the state of "must" can be detected 
by a discharge of an oily substance from the orifice of a 
gland a feAV inches behind each eye. Elephants are not 
irivariabiy vicious with their own attendants when in this 
condition, hut they are always uncertain in temper. One, 
in a station where I lived, seized his grass cutter round 
the waist and threw him into a ravine about ten yards 
distant, fortunately without breaking any bones. 
The birds marked in my old note-book as most com- 
mon in the Terai were a large hornbill, in flocks of 10 
cr 12; a small hornbill, green woodpeckers, black-headed 
orioles, skylarks, which, instead of mounting out of sight 
like those of Europe,^ hovered while singing at a height 
of about 100 yards above the ground; "cardinal birds," 
the male being crimson and the female yellow, with black 
quill feathers in the wings. Black partridges rose, singly 
cr in pairs, from the tall grass, and jungle fowl were in 
small flocks under trees near streams, each male bird be- 
ing accompanied by four or five hens. 
While I had been shooting on foot the other officers 
of the battery had succeeded in borrowing some elephants, 
sufficient in number to allow each of us one with a how- 
dah for riding, while three which were provided with 
pads accompanied us to carry any game that might be 
killed. The howdahs had seats on one side of which 
were sockets for the butts of the guns to rest in, and there 
were deep grooves on the top front bar for holding the 
barrels. Each of us had a rifle and shotgun, with ball 
cartridges as well as those loaded with smnil shot, for the 
•latter.. ' . 
We went out. on three successive days, and those who 
had previously practiced this style of shooting made fair 
bags of black partridges, hog deer, and axis deer, besides 
one swamp deer and an occasional floriken. Most of us 
had never been on an elephant before, and we shot very 
badly. When expecting game we, of course, stood up in 
the howdahs, and the motion reminded me of the swaying 
of a boat during a breeze on a river. Before trying it, I 
would not have believed that I could possibly have missed 
so frequently. 
The grass in many places was so tall that we could not 
see the elephant on either side, only the howdah and 
its occupants being visible. In other parts it was shorter, 
and a deer when started, perhaps 20 yards in front of 
the elephant, could be seen while galloping from 10 to 50 
yards further. I was equally unsuccessful when trying 
snapshots or following the game with the sights, and 
could not find out where the bullets struck. One day I 
fired more than twenty cartridges and bagged only ' one 
animal. If two or three more were hit, they were lost 
in the grass. 
A friend, who was experienced in shooting from ele- 
phants, told me some time afterward, that probably nearly 
all the bullets went over the backs of the game, and I 
think he was right, because one of our best shots was 
using a rifle with such an unusual amount of bend in the 
stock that firing high would have been difficult. 
For a year or so before our outing a gunmaker in 
Calcutta had been advertising a shell, invented by a Mr. 
Mead, for use in shotguns. It consisted of a ball with a 
globe-shaped copper bottle in the center. It was stated to 
be remarkably accurate and to have a very flat trajectory. 
I had purchased some and tried them at a target. As 
they were lighter than solid balls, a charge of four drams 
of powder could be used, which certainly improved the 
trajectory, but there was no increase of accuracy. On 
the second day I tried a few at game, and after missing 
three or four animals, had a shot at an axis stag which 
was galloping away straight ahead, and about sixty yrds 
distant. The shell struck on the top of the shoulders 
between the two blade bones, but instead of breaking 
the spine as a solid ball would have done, it was evi- 
dently crushed out of shape, for it glanced off, tearing 
away a large piece of skin. The deer, although not 
knocked down, stopped in his gallop and turned sidewise. 
I seized the rifle and killed him in his tracks with a bullet 
in the center of the shoulder. 
This convinced me that spherical shells were useless 
for large animals, owing to their want of penetration. 
For several years previous to this, conical shells had 
been used in large bore rifles by some sportsmen^for 
shooting tigers on foot. They were loaded with equal 
parts, by weight, of chlorate of potassium and sulphide of 
antimony, powdered separately and then mixed with a 
bone or wooden knife until of a uniform gray color. A. 
shell of this kind exploding in the chest or abdomen of 
A tiger, either killed him on the spot or paralyzed him so 
that he was rarely capable of doing any mischief; but 
such missiles were rendered unnecessary by the inventioiii 
of express rifles, which were found to be quite powerfull 
enough for all but the pachyderms. _ _ ' 
I regret to say that I made the mistake of shooting anj 
axis hind./ She rushed out of some dense grass witihia 
ten yards of my elephant, and, on the impulse of tHe 
moment I fired the rifle, breaking her back. As soon as- 
I could reload, a shot through the brain put her out of 
misery, and I was then deeply grieved at seeing a fawni 
only about a month old run from the same place where 
its mother had been hiding and disappear in the jungle. 
On the third and last day, we were pushing througlii 
some very high grass close to a stream, before dismount- 
ing for lunch, when a friend on my right hand fired four 
shots as rapidly as possible close in front of his ele- 
phant, and exclaimed that he had killed a python. The 
animal when measured was found to be 19 feet 7 inches^ 
long. With much difficulty he was hoisted on to the back, 
of a pad elephant and tied with ropes in order to be car- 
ried to the camp and skinned. 
It was here that the peculiar accident occurred which' 
I described in an article on good and bad luck, published! 
in Forest and Stream of August 13, 1898. While we- 
v/ere seated on the ground eating lunch, the rifle of one 
of our party exploded in the howdah. It was a double 
.50 caliber express by Rigby, and had cost about 6& 
guineas. The elephant, by some peculiar motion which) 
we could not understand, had jerked the stock out of the 
socket in which it rested. One of the hammers was 
broken off and the firing-pin bad been knocked against 
the cap of the cartridge. 
In the afternoon, after I had bagged a pig, my ele- 
phant was wading through a swamp, when I saw a black 
panther creeping up the bank at its farther end, about 100 
yards distant. I fired as carefully as possible, but missed 
the animal. This was exceedingly annoying, for a sports- 
man might shoot in the Indian jungles ten years without 
finding one. They are not a separate variety, but a black 
cub is occasionally found in a litter of the usual color. 
Although the amount of game shot was not great, I 
had been much interested in observing the -ways of ele- 
phants. They are capable of learning readily, and are 
very obedient to the words of command connected with 
their work, or to the signs made by the knees and legs 
of the mahouts who ride them ; but I think their intelli- 
gence, in matters requiring reflection or reason, has been 
greatly overrated. The mahout carries a thin iron bar 
called "ankoos," with a spike and hook at one end, 10 
enforce obedience when necessary. _ The elephant loaned 
to me was a very fast walker, and liable to go in front of 
the others instead of keeping in the line. On the top rf 
his head were several holes in the skin, caused by the,-- 
spike of the ankoos, from which matter was ccnstantlj'- 
oozing. When he went too far forward the mahout used: 
to strike this sore part with the iron, causing the animal- 
to scream with pain and lean back until he almost sat- 
down. If he had possessed much sense, he would not have-, 
allowed the mahout to mount on his neck, but when- 
ever the man grasped the ears, one in each hand, the ele-- 
phant coiled the end of the trunk for his foot to rest on,, 
and hoisted him up. Elephants are secured in stables or- 
camp with a chain which passes round one fore leg; 
slightly above the foot. The mahouts teach them to ■ 
