Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

spavins are mere bruises, or knocks in the boat; how many glandered animals have only a temporary cold; and how many farcy buds are mere tick bites!!

Take a good likely-enough horse out of his Pinjeree, and hear what a pedigree the owner will forge for him extempore, and favour you with a long tirade of performances up the Gulf that would rival Pyramus in his 3m. 22s. over the Calcutta course. I am certain that I have been assured fifty times that the nag I was pricing had run down antelopes in Arabia, as easy as he could the goats in the stable-yard, and had beat every horse that he had been tried against; and once (I blush while I write it)-but only once I was completely taken in, and was really simple enough to act in most positive and direct opposition to my own rules and ideas of choosing, and in spite of my deep-felt dislike to the animal, pointed out as having been kept purposely for me. I bought him at a larger price, merely because the dealer took his oath, swore by his prophet (profit he meant) that he was the fastest horse ever had been known, and of most unblemished pedigree. "But," said I doubtingly, "how does he gallop?" "Did you ever see a bullet go out of a gun? was the metaphorical reply. Well, this bullet knocked me down, and I was hit all over. Yet, when I looked at the creature, I saw only a stout, beastlyfat, punchy thing, fourteen one, with a rump as round and as large as a gram-kettle, with a channel that would not hold a tobaccopipe, and his pippin not so big as a stopper, and sunk like a bullock's almost out of sight; hind legs crooked in the wrong places; the chest, though very broad, seemed to roll over or rather grind on the elbows of his four legs, so com

pletely under him were they placed; then there was a hollow back and a straight shoulder, and, to my utter abomination, a fat and apopletic neck.

His only redeeming points, in my opinion, were a fine, bony, though long head, an eye as dark and bright and beautiful as the gazelle's, magnificent hocks (a really grand point), good width over the loins, and great girth, with a glove-like skin and hair as fair and silky as a lady's love locks..

"If he does not beat Bundoola I'll take my oath to cut off my right hand," said the dealer.

"That certainly," said I, "is a bloody proof of your high opinion. of him, provided you are in earnest, but instead of mutilating yourself as you so agreeably propose, suppose you agree to take him back if, after a month's training under my own eye, he does not run the mile and half with 8st. 4lbs. in 3m. 3s.

'Yes, by my eyes, I will agree," said the dealer, "if he is not injured."

Well, this was settled. I trained, and I tried him-I was astonished -he ran it-in 3m. 3s. ? No! exactly 3m. 30s., but proving next day dead lame from his extraordinary exertion. The buffalobrute remains in my stable, as the dealer intended he should, and the dealer's right hand remains where nature intended the limb was to hang.

So much for trusting to what the Arab dealers will swear to.

Another system much in vogue just now is trialing in private. It is notorious to every gentleman on the turf that the dealers have their own private trials on the beach, and sometimes on the ground, by which, of course, a favoured few profit a little, whilst the up-country gentry must pick

and choose for themselves in the dark.

Now, Sir, I should like to know if a man should purchase a horse upon the appearance and the voluntary oath of a natural dealer that he had never tried him, that he was a fresh five-year-old, and that his blood and cast were both of the purest Arab, and if the said horse should prove to be half Persian or Turkomann, or all either and not Arabian, aged too,

with a Bishop'd mouth, and had run a trial in Bombay on the sly (and a d-d bad one too)-should this, I ask, be brought home to the seller, what reparation or satisfaction could the buyer obtain? what would be the law in such a case? I ask for true information, for I own I long to give one or two of these stable gentry a trial in the course of law and see what they could do it in.

THE BISON.

SIR, In requesting you to publish the following rough notes of a shooting party in the Dhudelly Jungle, I have no intention of showing the list of killed as a specimen of brilliant sport, but merely to vary the contents of your next number, and give a short description of an animal little known. I allude to the Bison, which some maintain to be a wild buffalo, and others the common cow in its natural state, from both of which animals it is quite distinct. We shot three-two cows and a bull-and if we had been so inclined, I believe we should have found no difficulty in killing thrice the number, of which the best proof is that we declined firing on several occasions when a herd was within 30 yards.

The bull was a magnificent animal, and if he had been found in a plain instead of a very thick jungle, would have avenged himself before he fell. He was shot in the act of charging, when a single ball behind the shoulder dropped him dead. A cow which was feeding by him was also killed by one shot from the same gun, and a third had been dispatched the day before by one ball. When I mention that nine VOL. II.

Yours faithfully,

0.

[blocks in formation]

The jungle is so very thick, that with the assistance of a good shikarree to track, there is little trouble in getting shots at bison.

They commonly go in herds of seven or eight, and at a distance, among long grass, might be mistaken for buffaloes. The bulls have a small hump over the shoulder, and both bulls and cows an extraordinary rise of the backbone, which terminates abruptly about three feet from the tail. I have observed nothing similar in any other animal, and it may be the peculiar mark of the genus. The height of the ridge averages about four inches, and gives a strikingly awkward appearance to the animal. The horns are short, but very thick at the base,

K

and pointed at the tips; the forehead broad, and the skull between the horns rises up in an arch to the height of several inches. In both sexes the legs are white to the knee-the limbs very short and muscular. The bull has immense folds of thick skin on the neck, and carries the head low. The colour is black, inclining to chestnut; the hair very thin, except on the belly, where it is thick and curly.

Not being a naturalist myself, I can give no better account of this fine animal, which I believe is found in very few parts of India. Besides the three bison we shot four spotted deer, one samber, and an antelope.

Before closing this letter, although the subject is not apropos, I must advert to the article on snipe shooting in your last number. A subscriber tells us that snipes generally come in in the middle of May; in some places, such as the Konkan, nearly a month earlier that as the hot season advances they retire to

permanent bogs and marshes, where they are found till the setting in of the monsoon, and in the Konkan they are rarely found at the latter end of this season.

Will your correspondent be kind enough to inform us in what places snipe are to be found at the seasons he mentions? I have shot over almost every good snipe ground between Vingorla and Bancoote, and on the islands of Salsette and Karinjar, but I never found a snipe before the 2nd of October or later than the 28th of March; and from my own experience I should certainly say that before November, and after February, snipe shooting in the

Koncan is not worth the trouble of loading your gun.

As I am particularly fond of snipe shooting, I shall be only too happy to find that I am wrong and your correspondent right, for I may then shoot snipe all the year round.

D. D.
Dharwar, April 20th, 1831.

1831.

Song.

SONG.

I know where the nectars of earth are bright,
Each sorrow to beguile-

Where they blush and sparkle like the light
Of brilliant Beauty's smile!

Then pledge me now,

While the fates allow,

In wine-red wine, to the goblet's brow!

I know where to search for pure Bordeaux,
And for Naples' holy wine,

that
grapes
On the purpled banks of Rhine.

I'll give thee to quaff of the

grow

Come hither-come hither, and we will seek
For each juice of brightest dye,

That can light up a bloom on Care's pale cheek,
Or kindle his leaden eye!

Then pledge me now,

While the fates allow,

In wine-red wine, to the goblet's brow!

The visions that oft to worldly eyes
Clothe things in the fairest shape,
And in hope's bright hues-oh! they arise
From the magic of the grape!

The phantom miseries that appal

The Hypochondriac's soul,

We'll quickly exorcise them all

With the spell of the deep red bowl!

Then pledge me now,

While the fates allow,

In wine-red wine, to the goblet's brow!

We will not wait till life's decay

To pluck its fairest flowers,

But rifle their sweets while the dawning day

Of careless youth is ours;

Then pledge me now,

While the fates allow,

In wine-red wine, to the goblet's brow!

131

SIGMA.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Oriental Sporting Magazine.

As I believe it was your wish to expose either deceit or error wherever it is found connected with sporting subjects, I take the liberty to quote an article from the English Sporting Magazine for September, 1830, and to make a few remarks upon it.

In page 257 of that number, there is the following article:

66

"THE ARAB SIGNAL."

Signal is a very valuable and high bred Arabian horse, sent from India to the Honourable Arthur Cole, by his friend and late confederate on the turf, Captain MacLean, of H. M.'s 12th Light Dragoons, accompanied by the following character:-This little horse, Signal, has never been beaten, and is warranted sound and free from vice; he is five years old off, and just 14 hands high.'

Now, I believe it was never intended to keep it a secret that this same horse Signal was the horse Antelope, formerly the property of H. G. Oakes, Esq., of Bombay, and sold by that gentleman in 1827 to Captain MacLean of the 13th Dragoons; taking this therefore for granted, I have the following remarks to make on this short character of Signal.

This character contains four distinct assertions.

I. That this little horse Signal has never been beaten.

II. That he is warranted sound and free from vice.

III. That he is five years old off.

IV. That he is just 14 hands high.

As to the first assertion, a reference to the records of the Poonah

race-course will show that Mr Oakes's horse Antelope, running under the name of Mr. H. Gordon's, was one of the many beaten by Captain Mansfield's horse Elfin, for the great Maiden Sweepstakes of 500 rupees each, P.P., 11 subscribers, at Poonah, December, 1826.-Antelope nowhere.

As to the second assertion, little requires to be said, because a horse may be warranted sound and free from vice, and be neither the one or the other; one thing is certain, that unsoundness in one of his feet prevented Antelope from starting again that meeting at Poonah, or in Bombay.

The third assertion is, that he is five years old off. I do not remember what Antelope was aged that meeting at Poonah, in 1826; suffice it to say, he was upwards of four years old, as he did not run as a colt. In the extract from the Madras newspapers, quoted in the English Sporting Magazine, it is stated to be January, 1828, when he first won at Madras, nor did he then run as a colt.

As to the last assertion, that he is 14 hands high, it is quite possible that it may be true; he did not however measure that at Poonah, at the meeting above quoted, but under it. From this it will be seen that two out of the four assertions in this horse's character are grossly incorrect, and likely to mislead the sporting world at home. If therefore you have any fellow feeling with our brethren in England, the publication of this may not be without its effect.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your constant reader, and
Obedient servant,
WITNESS.

« AnteriorContinuar »