no way interfere, to be a far from disagreeable mode of killing the morning (for I am one of your early risers), and therefore propose to give you a short account of Lakhsmee, a celebrated cheeta, formerly belonging to Dooly Khan, the late hospitable Nuwab of Nuldroog, and subsequently presented by J. Farquharson, Esq., to the Sholapoor Hunt, and with which I have seen many excellent runs.

I am not acquainted with the natural history of this animal, nor am I indeed much of a naturalist, and you will, therefore, permit me to consign that part of my subject to some one better versed in these matters. I shall merely observe that Lukhsmee is now nine years old, and that it is seven since she was taken at Nersee-Bamunee, near Delhi.

The mode of training a newlycaught leopard is exceedingly tedious, and their education is seldom finished in less than six

months. They are first picketed with head and heel ropes, after the manner of a horse, and fed or rather starved in this situation, until they become somewhat docile and obedient, when they are entered to the deer kept for the purpose in an enclosure, and subsequently to wild ones. The cheeta is hooded and placed on a cart drawn by bullocks, the driver holding a cord which is attached to the animal's loins, and the keeper in rear holding a second rope passed through the collar. On arriving within a proper distance of deer she is unhooded, and permitted to go her own way to work. If the herd are running at the time she is set down, she invariably courses the object of her selection; but if they stand, she stands too, taking advantage of bushes, nullahs, or ant-hills to advance as they retire further from her, until an opportunity

offers. She invariably selects a buck, if there be one in the herd, and will pass fifty does to accomplish her purpose. In this I have seldom seen her fail, although the generality of buck antelope are half as large again as herself.

To those who have never witnessed the feat it will doubtless appear somewhat marvellous that a cart with ten or more spectators on horseback can approach within fifty yards of a herd of deer; but yet this is the distance at which Lukhsmee is usually uncarted. There is nothing like perseverance for the accomplishment of any object, and in this I have seldom known it to fail. If the deer prove very wily, there is nothing for it but to slip the cheeta in the first nullah that presents itself, where she remains, whilst the cart is so manoeuvred as to force the deer in the direction of her ambuscade.

Lukhsmee's cunning in these matters is only exceeded by her speed, which is superior to that of the swiftest greyhound. Let the unbelieving picture to themselves an antelope distant fifty or sixty yards from a greyhound, both at full speed-I suspect the acquaintance would stop there. But not so with Lukhsmee, who seldom fails to pick them up in 400 or 500 yards or less; and the deer runs its best too. I do not ever recollect to have seen her run more than 600 yards.

After a deer is secured, the cheeta is re-hooded, and then the keeper's knife comes into play. The animal, having been consecrated to use with the accustomed Bismillah, et cetera, is deprived of one of its hind quarters, and the titbits, such as heart and liver, all of which are the leopard's perquisites, and are, in fact, as much as she can manage, her usual ration being two seers a day. But if she be required to kill a second.

deer, the knuckle only is given, and she is returned not in the best of humours to her cart. Should she miss, which must of course occur sometimes, particularly the second time, she lies down, and awaits the arrival of the keeper; but in the opposite case she retains her hold of the throat until ordered to desist.

Since her arrival at Sholapoor, which is not much more than twelve months ago, Lukhsmee has killed upwards of 150 antelope, chiefly bucks. The morning is for many reasons best adapted to the sport, and I can assure those to whom a constitutional is indispensable, that they will find a run with the cheeta a less monotonous and uninteresting method of getting through their morning's work than by a race-course gallop.

Mr. Editor, I have vainly looked to analyze the ingredients of excitement, which, as I before remarked, is the touchstone by which every sport is estimated; but I have reason to believe that emulation and danger are the two grand components, and if this be the case the hunting I have endeavoured to describe should not be without its harms. For I recollect a friend of mine who could never divest himself of the idea that the cheeta might very possibly take a fancy to him, instead of to the fated antelope, and did, therefore, ride like the devil in the opposite direction whenever she was uncarted.

Your obedient servant,
S. M. S.
Sholapoor, 17th Sept., 1830.

His rage at first, his glorious burst, Dark dashing through the flood, His bristly might, his meteor flight,

And his death of foam and blood! Oh! who hath been in such a scene,

That scene can ne'er forget, In sorrow's mood, in solitude, Its dream will haunt him yet. 'Mid festal times, in other climes, He'll think of days so dear, And fill his cup, and drain it up, To SADDLE, SPUR, and SPEAR!

But while I sing, Time's rapid wing

This lesson scems to teach :

SIR,

The joy and bliss of sport like this Are still within our reach; Then let's away at break of day, Ride vale and hill-top o'er, Scale mountains' side or stem the tide

To spear the flying Boar; And time may then bring eve again,

When we, at Pleasure's shrine, To check his flight for one gay night,

We'll wet his wing with wine. And ere we part pledge hand and heart,

Once more to rally here, To fill the cup, and drain it up, TO SADDLE, SPUR, and SPEAR! S. Y. S.

I concluded my last letter, being also the first of its kind, on the proportions of celebrated Arabs, with a promise to give you my opinion upon what sort of horses should be sent to England for stallions, and what sort should not.

As some horses have already made the homeward voyage, it may seem invidious to particularize those which appear to me to have no pretensions to such a distinction ; but in so doing I trust their owners will give me credit for sporting my opinion to the best of my judgment, and with no intention to be partial or illnatured.

At the top of the list stands the celebrated Sulky, once the property of that thoroughbred gentleman sportsman, R. Lukin, Esq.-an ungainly looking chestnut, with great muscular powers. He was beat at Bombay, but he was not right, and his time afterwards at Calcutta stands unrivalled in India; he was a small horse, with great bone and blood -the only stallion from Bombay

that ought to have gone away for that purpose. Fairplay is one of the horses now covering in England that I should say ought never to be have propagated his breed, even in Arabia, and certainly should not mingle his blood with our English mares, for the chance of a racing crop. He was

a huge, ill-made, and, as John Dockery would call him, an impossible brute, with a large straight quarter, a good head, very wide in the jowl, which gave him his only pretension to any caste, a powerful artist on a heavy course, though he lumbered along like a hackney-coach. He ran in Bombay, in 1826, and was beat by little Don Juan and others in no great time. There is also a nutmeg grey, a present from the Imaum of Muscat, now covering at home, to the great detriment of the reputation of Arab blood, for he was an out-and-out Persian, with no shape, no symmetry; he never ran, and for the best reason in the world, he was not made for it; he was sent to England by Sir W. K. Grant.

I believe the last exportation

I

was the well-known Slyboots; and however highly many people think of him, yet I should have decidedly pronounced him to have been a horse totally unfit for begetting racers. I grant that he showed great blood, that his action was magnificent and very imposing, for, with the light, airy, elastic movements of his fore legs, he threw in his hind with the force of a sledge hammer. acknowledge also that he possessed the large eyes and broad channel, those grand and unfailing characteristics of the true, only true, racer; his barrel was well hooped, although it looked light and herringish. This, by-the-by, is a point very often overlooked, by even good judges, who fancy unless a horse shows, to the eye, good depth of brisket and fellers, that he must be deficient in room within; but many a round and light carcase have I seen, that would measure in the whole girth much more than those that were twice as deep, and I would recommend purchasers not to choose by the eye alone, when they are pricing a prad, or selecting a flicker, but to recollect that a little measuring may not be amiss. But to return to Slyboots. I have owned to his style of gallop, and the goodness of his caste, a fine blood head, good thigh, and awful hocks, though he stood awry with them; his fore leg was handsome, though he turned out his toes; the top of his shoulder and his wither were not only particularly well formed, but, what is better, well placed. Still, with all these excellent gifts, he had one failing, which in a stallion, I say, is a fatal objection-he would not carry weight. Put weight upon his back and he would scarcely crawlit cramped him at once; but give him a flea for a jockey, and he'd fly.

His best public time was in

his two mile heats, running both in 4m. 2s., but then he only carried a pony weight. When he beat Harlequin, his match, he had only 8 stone up, and was beat seven days after by Bundoola and Brilliant, because he ran with 9 stone; and what did he do in December of the same year, with 8st. 7lb. ? he was only fourth horse in three miles, beat in 6m. 21 s. This proves that a pound beyond the weight he wanted was sufficient to cripple him, and shows either a deficiency of bodily strength or of natural

courage, either of which are against a stallion begetting good progeny.

I understand that some horses of the Turkomano breed are going to England, but of what call will they be? They look stylish and handsome enough, but where's the blood to flow from? They will no doubt be very much admired at home, from their mould and action, and, as they have a certain oriental appearance about them, people may be induced to send their mares, but they will be woefully deceived if they expect racers from the produce; for draft or for the road, and perhaps for the paces, they might answer, but you might as well look for the digital mark of aristocracy in the offspring of a Somersetshire ploughman, as hope to see a blood brood from a Turkomano sire. They might possess size and speed, but would as certainly want courage and a capability of maintaining.

Let the mare be large enough, and it is of little consequence if the stallion be small; the mother would give the size, or, at all events, size sufficient, and I have no doubt that such long tried and little trumps as Tom Thumb, Don Juan, and even Little Tough,

though quite a galloway, would, ensure first-rate colts from thoroughbred dams; and they are the kind of stallions for the home studs. Barefoot would be invaluable to a breeder, and so would Harlequin, because they not only possess bone and figure, but blood, and blood of the very best kind. Boxkeeper would be another, but I should object to Paul Pry and Goblin Grey, as, although they are real good ones, they have not symmetry. A man with a bandy leg might be a good pedestrian, but a bandylegged family would not throw out many good runners. Now, the hind quarters of both Paul and the Goblin are defective, and a stallion, to ensure a good breed, should be as near perfection as possible. On this point I would recommend an attentive perusal of the little treatise just published by Hankey Smith, Esq. I do not know, Mr. Editor, if your Magazine will travel to our native land, but should it find its way thither, and the curiosity of any English sportsmen induce them to look into it, I hope they will take a hint about breeding from Arabs, because they happen to be imported from India and called Arabs. Let them, if they wish to replenish their racer's veins with Arabian blood, select for their stallion some known tried horse, and not any good-looking hunter that may have been sent from this country on mere speculation. The great outcry which I understand is made against the Arab crop, is caused entirely by this. They may rely upon it

that a good mare would throw such a produce to a real Nejdee, that in the third or fourth generation would bring back the days of Eclipse and Flying Childers. I have now in my possession a mare, Zuleika, bred as the Bengal Stud Book says, by Captain G. Watkins, out of Lady Starch, who was imported in 1818, bred by Mr. Goodisson, got by Pioneer out of Buzzard mare, her dam sister to Champion by Pot-8-o's. Huncamunca by High Flier, Cipher by Squirrel, Regulus, Bartlets, Childers, Honeywood's Arabian. Zuleika's sire was the English imported horse Benedick, by Remembrancer out of Beatrice by Sir Peter Teazle. This shows Zuleika to have good blood. She has now a foal at her foot by Captain Morris's G. A. Fitzjames and has stood to Harlequin, and I am confident the produce will bear me out in my opinion regarding the proper kind of horses which ought to be selected for stallions to English

mares.

I fear, Mr. Editor, I have trespassed too long both upon your pages and on the patience of your readers, but I hope the importance of the subject will plead my excuse, and I will now take my leave until No. 11 shall be forthcoming, when I will again trouble you with a few more observations on the points I have now touched upon. In the mean time, with very best wishes for the success of your Magazine, I remain, Obediently yours,

MY DEAR Mr. EDITOR,

The accompanying account of 32 Hog, &c., &c., killed at our

HUNT.

S. Y. S.

hunt is, with a little alteration, an extract from a friend's journal. Should you think it worthy a