389 
THE BREEDING STUD OE AN INDIAN PRINCE. 
BY 
COLONEL T. B. TYLER, R.A. 
Bhavnagar, iii Khatiawar, is one of: the most prosperous and best 
managed states in India. During the reign of the present Maharajah, 
public works, conceived and carried out in pursuance of a wise and 
liberal policy, have been completed, and the plans of more are prepared, 
and will be begun in due time. Large reservoirs of water, with an 
ample supply for reserve purposes, have been constructed in the city; 
there is a spacious hospital, a college, a park of 450 acres—in which 
will be laid out ornamental lakes with islands to harbour wild fowl; 
and within the bounds of which antelope, nilghai, and various deer will 
wander freely—there are avenues of trees, and good roads everywhere. 
The gem of the city is a tomb to the late Maliarani, built of Carrara 
marble, curiously and beautifully carved by local artists; part of the 
design being after the famous carved windows at Ahmedabad; and there 
is some undercutting quite exquisitely wrought. In the building of the 
hospital and college the Hindoo style of architecture has been followed, 
the chief characteristics of which are the dome, the cusp, and the flat 
band; the Hindoos build no arches, they distrust them, and justify the 
suspicion by the proverb “ The arch never restsmeaning, that a 
power of thrust is always exerted. 
Some sixty miles from Bhavnagar lies the famous forest of the Gir, 
through which roam the few lions still existing in Asia. They are 
carefully preserved, and only one or two have been shot in the last four 
or five years; the Political Agent told me it was supposed there were 
about fifty still in existence, and he thought their numbers had not 
altered during the last twenty years. The reasons they do not increase 
seem to be that a good many cubs are captured for menageries, and 
that some are killed by the owners of the flocks and herds in the 
country surrounding the forest; for the lion is to the flockmaster a 
much more unpleasant neighbour than the tiger, who hunts alone and 
kills only what he requires for food; lions hunt in troops and will often 
kill a dozen cattle for sport. They breed in caves, and the natives, 
aware of this habit, light fires at the entrances and smother the in¬ 
mates. It is interesting to note that lions and tigers inhabited the 
jungles surrounding Mount Aboo, near Deesa, less than thirty years 
ago, and though the lions have disappeared there are tigers there still, 
The tiger seems to possess, in a greater degree than the lion, the capa- 
52 
8. VOL. xxi. 
