over the bad ground in rear of the jungle, breaking through the beaters. We were soon at their heels, and after a run all fell smart; while after these, a sounder of 12 were said to have stolen away unseen by any of the hunters. Beat the jungle a second time, when a boar sneaked off, and, before he was seen, made good the high ground, and owing to the quantity of grain we saw no more of him. Returned to a sugar-cane field close by the jungle, and had all the beaters ready to put in, when another sounder of four went away in beautiful style straight for the jungle, which they made good at an astonishing pace, and having gone right through it were soon waited on, and two of the four killed. After running through high grain for about a mile, one made good a sugar-cane field, which he would not leave, having been several times wounded, and, after a good deal of difficulty, he was killed in the field by the beaters; the fourth got off with one spear wound, so the day ended with seven killed, four of which were boar, and harder running hog I never saw.

January 12th.-Went three coss to Tandlewarry; beat a thin jungle without success. Put the beaters into a grain, when a hog took off, only seen by two or three of the beaters. The country here was so covered with grain for miles that we could not expect much luck. Went on beating for four or five miles; when we arrived at Lunee, where we were told that hog were in the sugar-cane, put in the beaters, and a sow soon took out, but she kept to the fields, and, after being speared three times, was lost in some high grain. After about two hours' work, found a boar in a high grain field; he was run singly and lost. Put the beaters in, and went afterwards

to a fine plain, when a first boar started and soon made across it. All hands together at starting. "Devil take the hindmost" was the cry, and such a devil for going and such ground as he went over I have never seen. After making some good turns for about a mile he was run into and killed. This run repaid us for all our day's work; it was now sunset, and we were ten miles from our tents, after having been out nine hours; not a bad day's work.

--

14th. One of our party left us, and the rest having moved ground to Lunee, after breakfast we had the pleasing intelligence that a boar was hard by in a sugar-cane field. We were soon mounted and at the ground; beaters put in so thick that they were not a yard apart, besides eight matchlock men and two large rattles; but my friend was not inclined to stir so easily, for he charged three times through the beaters before he could be got to leave the field, and when he did come out, he went into a high grain field, where he remained within a yard of the edge till he was forced out, when, after a short and speedy run, he was killed without showing any fight. We expected to have had a little fun, but the second spear went through his shoulder blade, which prevented his doing anything.

This was all our day's sport.

15th. After breakfast heard of two hog in a plain; were soon mounted and there. The grain was near a mile from them, so thought there was no chance of their making it; but we were much deceived, for three hog instead of two being started, they went straight for the grain, and all made it good without being turned; however, after some very hard running, one was got out and killed, the other two got away:

after this we sent in the beaters and put up a young boar, but he could not be got to leave the grain, and after about an hour's work was killed, but not before he had knocked over one horse, rider and all. There was one other fall this day, but no great harm done in either.

MR. EDITOR,

Thus ended our four days' sport, with 11 hog killed, of which seven were boars, and not one small one among them. Had there been less grain, I have no doubt but we should have killed many

more.

A word, if you please, to your correspondent Dragsman. He has gone away at a light slapping pace (like Emilius with Bundoola on his quarter), but is the pace so hollow a thing as he fancies? Detonators are, I allow, very pretty tools indeed, but notwithstanding the candid confession, why are Flints to be so studiously avoided? Fair play is the word with me, and after carefully observing all Dragsman's work, I don't see why such decided preference is to be given to Detonators. Let us look at the country over which your correspondent has travelled.-The first exclamation I made, was "What, in the name of the prophet, signifies the kind of weapon used at the Red House, Battersea ? In a few months this club may think proper to patronize steam guns, whilst we in India find a different species of iron more convenient and suitable." To Dragsman's list of "objections to Detonators," allow me to add one or two, which appear to have entirely escaped his memory. I will put this question to him"Have you ever seen a nipple which obstinately persisted in performing the duty of a Punch ?"

I

Have you ever found after a pull at the trigger that the former cap still remained in the cock or hammer, or that the cap itself was unprimed? Either of these misfortunes will ever cause a

POINS.

"misser," I guess. If he has not beheld such "ill luck," I can inform him that I have, and that, too, more than once. To continue, I have seen a friend try cap after cap, and out of 2000 not five would go off. All lovers of Detonators are subject, perhaps, to this incident also. I am, as you have no doubt, some time since discovered, one of that "honourable class" who, like my friend True Blue, use flints; but I have never as yet found my bag at the end of the day very light in weight and a heavy bag against me. True Blue can, I know, say the same. The little fable of the chopfallen, drenched, and bespattered sportsman with the empty bag, &c., &c., is very funny, but of what possible use are guns, whether Flints or Detonators, in the rains? I beg Dragsman's pardon-he has put Flints out of the question. Detonators should, therefore, only have been mentioned. What kind of sport, I ask, is to be had in that season? Tigers are not to be found, i. e. "all nowhere." It is vanity and vexation attempting to follow bears, and that man must have a happy indifference for the next season's sport who takes up his gun for small game. I was out with a friend to the Detonators some short time back; we had not much sport, I confess, but I, with my I, with my "Antiquated Tool," had not a single "snick," whilst he, in one day, had no less than

three; a most unaccountable manœuvre this all percussion men will say, but so it was. Dragsman talks of the 'silk-haired setter who crosses the stubble tail on end with a greyhound's speed;" he appears to imagine that in pointers and setters speed is everything, all the same as pacing. Such great speed in setters is something new, but it is laid down as law; my only remark is "Doctors differ,' &c. This reminds me (of what appears to me to be a most unaccountable prac

MR. EDITOR,

tice) of a friend of mine, a Detonator one too, who invariably, when out shooting, walks some ten or twelve paces behind the line of beaters. The reason of such a proceeding my friend will not disclose; we should therefore conclude it is too good to be mentioned. Wishing you every success with the Sporting Magazine,

I am, yours obediently,
ANTI DETONATOR.

In haste.

I have much pleasure in sending you the following account of some Tiger Shooting, in the hope that it may afford amusement to some of your readers.

On the 1st of the month information was brought by a man of the name of Meerza (an Asswar well known on the Collector's Establishment) of three tigers having been seen in the neighbourhood of the village of Jullalpore. I had been in the Purgunna for many days without even the probability of a day's sport of any description; you may judge, then, of the joy with which I hailed this news; I vowed in gratitude to render his name immortal by giving it a place in your valuable Magazine, and I now redeem the pledge. The first step was to reconnoitre the ground, and to fix some plan of operation; this was soon done, as the distance was not two miles; a Dhera pointed it out, he had seen the tigers go there in the early part of the morning. The cover was a small thick baubul jungle, rather narrow, and extending about 200 yards in length, with a hedge on both sides and open at the ends or nearly so.

The place was quiet and seciuded, there being nothing but broken ground and low jungle in the neighbourhood; a single baubul tree stood at about 50 yards from one of the ends, and it was impossible to conceive a position better adapted for ensuring sport than was afforded by this tree; I therefore ordered a few of the smaller branches to be cut away, and took up my station in it about three o'clock in the afternoon. At the other end of the jungle I had collected about a hundred beaters with native music, horns, kettles, and in short every description of country noise, with a few peons to regulate and control them; these forming a pretty close line across the jungle beat up towards me. The mixed sensation of nervousness (not to say fear) and anxiety which I felt at this moment is beyond description; to say my heart was in my mouth comes nothing near it, for the instant that the shout commenced the tigress got on foot, and for a minute or two I watched her going up the side of the jungle, and when she came to the opening she hesitated, but it was then too late; the rifle ball had gone clean

in

through her heart, and she fell dead within 20 yards. In ten minutes from this time no less than three other tigers left this small jungle. I had two rifles, and two double-barrelled guns in the tree. The second shot wounded a tiger in the belly, and he returned into the jungle evidently a bad way. The third knocked over a young one, about half grown or rather better, but he got up and went off in the opposite direction, and the fourth kept at such a respectable distance, that I missed him altogether. After the first shot the beaters ceased, but the tigers kept up a continual roar till they got clear away. It is impossible to describe the magnificence of this scene, and therefore I will not attempt it, but to witness such another I would any day ride a hundred miles. To proceed, however, the wounded tiger which returned to the jungle now occupied my attention; it was evidently not safe to allow the beaters to remain inside. I therefore ordered them to be withdrawn, and got down from the tree in order to consult upon what was next to be done, and while in this very unpleasant situation, and the people straggling about like sheep, a fifth tiger came out of the same jungle and went away without a single shot.

This, Mr. Editor, is so unusual an occurrence, that I write it with fear lest it should be doubted, but it was witnessed by one hundred and twenty people, and therefore is not to be disputed. There ap

peared now to be no end to them; the jungle had not been half beat, and the wounded one was still there. The people were afraid to go in, and I had no relish for anything of the kind myself, having made a resolution to keep always in a tree during the whole of these tumashas; and the present did not appear an occasion for violating so good a rule. We were, however, relieved from this dilemma by some people observing the wounded one creeping away from the other end; and we accordingly commenced a pursuit, as he was represented to be going very slowly and his bowels trailing on the ground. He was seen to go into some low khujaon trees, and I contrived with some difficulty to get up into one close by, in the hope of being able to overlook him, but after losing much time it was found that he had left the spot, and part of his entrails on the ground behind him; and it being now nearly dark, we returned home, and the next morning, by eight o'clock, the butcha which had been struck at the third shot was brought in dead. The tigress measured 8 ft. 4 in., and the young one 6 ft. 1 in. I had both opened with the view of ascertaining the truth of an opinion current here that the age of a tiger may be known by the number of the divisions or lobes in the liver; the tigress had seven distinct parts, the butcha only three.

Surat.

S. W.

MR. EDITOR,

IN

Notwithstanding all that has been said in favour of different remedies for distemper, I think most of your readers will agree with me in admitting it to be one of those disorders (among many others with which the canine race is afflicted) in certain instances incurable from its commencement.

I have seen a few cases where it has made its appearance so suddenly and with such virulence, as to defy all the skill and medicine in the world, and others where life was preserved, still leaving the animal in such a state as to render him totally unfit for the field ever afterwards.

I have had of late a very sickly kennel myself, and happening to be going to the coast at the time, took an opportunity of following the advice of a friend of mine whose dogs had in several instances derived the greatest benefit from sea bathing, especially in one severe case of Hydrocephalus, where the fits were extremely violent. Even in this case, and taking into consideration that fits of the above nature are incurable, and can only be alleviated by certain treatment, such was the benefit the animal obtained from

sea bathing as to offer the greatest encouragement to adopt this simple and accessible method.

The case which I shall now mention occurred to a greyhound bitch of mine, and was a species of Hydrocephalus, but of a much milder nature than the foregoing one, and without fits; the symptoms were dulness about the head and eyes, partial blindness in one eye, and a difficulty in swallowing, causing at every mouthful a kind of spasm on the chest, evidently the remains of distemper. I had her bathed every morning about seven o'clock, making her swim a distance of 200 yards each time for the period of one month, since which I have taken her into the Deccan, where her constitution appears to have undergone a thorough change for the better. She is now in as fine condition and as full of life and vigour as I ever wish to see a dog.

This case, Mr. Editor, happened with the very bitch which I tried Turbith's mineral some few months back, the account of which I see you obligingly published in No. 7.

Yours truly,

April 2nd.

CANIS AMICUS.