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LETTERS 



SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL 



BY 
FRANK B. SIMSON 



ILLUSTRATED. 



LONDON: 

B. H. POBTER, 6 TENTEBDEN STREET, W. 

1886. 



THEN.'-:-', Y.'.HK 

Ipub[i:l"^-,;ry 

TiLC7N - > 



1 -'7. 



FLAMMAU. 




PBINTED BT TATLOB AND FBAKCI8, 
KED UON COURT, FLEKT BTREET. 









I • • • • • 

• • • • 

• « • • * * 

• « « • « 






» • »•• ■ 



. • • • • 

- . ••• • • *•• •■*> • 



prepare the spear : 



Foil'd^ bleeding) breathless, furious to the last. 
Full in the centre stands the boar at bay. 
Mid woundsi and clinging darts, and lances brast. 
And foes disabled. 



(From ' CkUde HarM^ with the aUeratum of one word,) 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
List of Plates xiz 



No.l. 
Introductory 



Lbttbb No. 2,'~TffS 8HIKARRT. 

A good Shikarry essential to all sport. A Mahommedan for choice ; 
reasons for this. — Certain necessary qualifications; obedience and truth* 
fulness. — ^My man Budderuddeen. — Do not engage a Calcutta man. — 
His chief use. — ^In addition to usking the Shikarry, use other methods 
of obtaining knowledge as to sport. — ^If you secure a good Shikarry, 
take pains to retain his services 2 

Lbttbb No. 3. 

Ways of finding out the capabilities of a district for good sport. 
Examine all procurable maps : take regular rides in all directions and 
make notes ; make Shikarry report on tracts noted in the maps, especially 
where no shooting is going on. — Remarks as to Snipe-ground. — Proper 
inquiry demands disregard of ordinary fashionable daily routine. Inquiry 
fix>m boats in districts much cut up with streams. — How sport from a 
district like Dacca may be ensured. — Shooting to be got from Calcutta . 5 

Lbttbb No. 4. 

Remarks on different districts and on opportunities for absence from 
official duties. — ^An officer is bound to travel about his district, and can 
create leisure by travelling faster than his official attendants. — Your 
Shikarry should go before. — Budderuddeen's style of report. — Sporting- 
stations and districts not generally the most soaght after by young 

civilians. — ^A Mend's remarks on Noakholly 8 

b 



vi SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 



Lbttbb No. b.^SNIPE'SHOOTINO. 

Page 

Sport with Snipe. Sands of Snipe. Seasons for the Sport. — Sport 
not likely to fail^ though cultivation may increase. — ^Time of day for 
Snipe-shooting. — Avoid strong drink. — Change your suit as soon as 
shooting ends. — Large bags of Snipe in Tippera. — Bad fever from 
Snipe-shooting. — September sport. — Snipe-ground of Noakholly. — ^Nice 
uncultivated spots for sport 11 



Lbtteb No. 6. 



Ground varies with inundations and tides. — Place very near Calcutta 
only suitable for Snipe after spring-tides. — Good place towards the Soon- 
derbunds. Rice-fields. — Remarks as to shooting in the morning or 
evenings or in the middle of the day. — A hot afternoon 14 



Lbitkb No. 7. 

Snipe in the spring : in Borudhan : in deep water covered with floating 
weed, from boats or canoes. — Shoot in the morning from east to west, in 
the afternoon from west to east. — Charges of powder and shot. — Clothes 
for Bengal Snipe-shooting. Liquor to be drunk. — Many Snipe caught - 
by Shikarries, and kept alive till sold, but not equal to Snipe which 
have been shot. — Different ways of cooking Snipe. — Jack Snipe. — 
Painted Snipe. — I propose to vary details in these letters by writing 
sometimes of Bird-shooting and sometimes of Tiger, and then by 
introducing Hog-hunting before returning to Tigers, and so on . . . 17 



Lbttee No. 8.— good SFOUT ON QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY. 

A good day's sport on the Queen's Birthday. — ^A bheel at the foot of 
the Shooshung Hills. — ^Difficulties of reaching an out-of-the-way place. — 
The Rajah of Shooshung. — ^The weather. — Shikarry's report. — Rajah 
shoots a noisy Hog. — ^Buffalo-shooting 21 



Lbttsb No. 9. 



Day's sport continued. — Shoot a Swamp-Deer with remarkable horns. 
— Return to Camp. — News brought of a Tiger. — Start again. — Arrange- 
ments for beating. — ^Try the shouting tactics^ and the Tiger bolts. Is 
killed. — ^Wet night in tents. — Wet ride back. — Remarks 28 



CONTENTS. Tii 

Lbtivb No. 10. 

Page 

Hog-hunting. — Hog-hnnting compared with other sports^ and con- 
sidered only inferior to the best Fox-hunting. — (The Bengal Wild Boar. 
Size. The largest seen by me. — Hogs of different Zillahs. — ^Various 
countries for hunting. — ^The Calcutta Tent Club. — Bight number to lide 
a Hog. — Scarcity of competent Hog-hunters. — Indigo-planters.—- 
NoakhoUy. — How I arranged with the Zemindars and preserved the 
country for Hog-hunting. — How my preserves were invaded. How 
defended from future attack 26 



Lbttbs No. 11. 

Noakholly Churs described. — Chur Siddhee. — Other islands in the 
Megna river. — Inundations described. — Tippera country. — Dacca. — 
Mymensing. — Horses in Mymensing going in the loins. — ^Patna. — 
Introduction of the present spear used in Bengal. — Countries bordering 
the Ganges : on both banks. — ^Tumlook 81 

* Lbttbb No. 12. 

Horses for Hog-hunting. Cape Horses. Arabs. Country-breds. — 
Walers. Objections to Waters. — ^The Dacca banker in the Doudcandee 
country. — ^TheWaler^'Badger.'^ — ^Bucking. — ^English Horses. — Spears. — 
A good spear-head as contrasted with a badly shaped one. — Drawing of a 
spear-head. — ^The bamboo shaft. — How to prepare a spear 88 

Lbttbb No. 13. 

My first Boar. — How I was taught to spear a hog properly by 
Cockbum. His rules. Consequences of lending a horse to a man who 
disregarded these rules. — Sad results to the Commissioner from going 
up slowly to a wounded boar. — Spear hogs well forward.— Never hold 
on to a spear if it sticks in the wound. — First blood 44 

Lbttbb No. 14. 

Pace of hogs. — The tally-ho I — ^The etiquette of riding for first spear. 
— ^The hog does not always require law. — How to ride a hog in Benna 
grass. — Hurrysunkur or Gilbert mile. — How to ride a hog^ continued. 
— At times men should ride in concert and not jealously. — An episode 
at the Tent Club. — How a wounded hog took me to fresh jungles. — 
Throwing spears strictly prohibited. — Short and long spears compared. 

— Sharp short runs 48 

62 



Tiii SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Lbttbb No. 16. 

Page 
Accidents to horses. Treatment of wounds. — ^Accidents to men. 

Falls. — Serious accident to myself. — How to manage when horse gets 

ponked. — Ponky nullahs. How I managed these at Hingootea.— Don't 

bucket your horse over marsh if the hog is far in front. — ^Pigs' nests 53 

Lbttbb No. 16. 

Great Hog-hunting party given by H. Torrens, Esq. — ^The riders. — 
The country. — ^The first beat. — The griffs. — ^The first day's sport. The 
evening. — Purchase and death of '' Alchemist." — ^Two Boars at once. — 
Hurrysunkur. — Departure of the best hunter. — Qingerry Chur. Akra- 
gunge. — ^Table of riders and how they prospered 56 

Lbttbb No. 17. 

Another large Hog-hunting party twenty years later. — Lord Mayo^ 
Governor-General of India. — How the party originated. Preparations. 
— ^The G.-G. and party arrive. — ^The riders and the manager of the 
beating. — ^The sport. — ^The effect of one day on a country. — The Calcutta 
Tent Club. — ^The country. — The camp. — Christmas doings. — Killing a 
Hog in a tank. — Narrow escape of a rider. — Convivial evening. — ^Variety 
of hunting-grounds. — Jungles. — Beating with elephants. — Riding in 
thick jungle. — Death of " Ton my honour.'^ — Hoogla-jungles ... 62 

Lbttbb No. 18. 

Hog-hunting by myself or with one companion. — Noakholly sport. — 
DiflBlculty of getting companions for this sport. — Chur Siddhee and 
similar churs. Arrangements for hunting them. — Beaters and their 
grog and pork. — A deaf Hog. — Dogs. — Ground and cover at Siddhee. 

— Christmas 1858. Again in 1854. — Two days of wonderful sport. 

A difficult Hog to kill 69 



Lbttbb No. 19. 

Siddhee in 1857.— The jungle full of Hogs.— Accidents to Horses. 

Treatment of a wound. — Disaster before dinner. — My largest number of 

kills in one day. — Chur Hingootea : its jungles and neighbourhood. 

An old friend. — The village beat and ^' Rouge-et-noir's '' behaviour. 

Cheringa. — Death of a Greyhound. — Slook Chur. — Adventure in a 
boat. — Dacca hunting: at Doudcandee and at Sabhar. — Hunting at 
Mymensing. — The Photograph 74 



CONTENTS. ix 

Lbttbb No. 20. 

T J . Pago 

Introductory to Tiger-shooting. — Keep Elephants of your own as 

soon as you can afford it. One at first and then more. Formerly many 

dvilians kept Studs of Elephants. — ^The Judge my first instructor as 

r^aided Tigers. His howdahs. A good pattern necessary. — Elephants^ 

how to be procured. Females preferable to Males. Elephants becoming 

" Must." — My own Stud. — Size of Elephants. Backs^ pace, age, courage 81 

LsTTKB No. 21. 

Borrowed Elephants.^Mahouts and Mates. — Sowdaugor Mahout. 
His pluck somewhat embarrassing. — Cost of keeping Elephants. — Dull- 
grass bheels. Dry districts. — Food. Cost varies.?— Elephants delicate 
animals. — Death of " Jaboona.*' — Eating earth. — Sore eyes. Sore backs 86 



Lettxb No. 22. 

Accidents with male Elephants. Cutting tusks. — Building a howdah. 
Obtain a pattern, try it, and improve on it. Should be strong and lights 
with iron-work of the best description. Further particulars. — ^Ammu- 
nition-pouches. Seats. Chairs. Charbund 90 

Lbttbb No. 28. 

The Guddy. Should be stuffed with Solah. Keep a good one. 
Borrowed guddies very inferior. — Howdah-ropes. Giiddela. Remarks 
on howdahs. Small howdah. — Chaijamehs. — ^The battery. Smooth 
bores as useful as rifles. As much as possible have all weapons of the 
same bore. Bullets 94 

Lbttbb No. 24. 

Tents. Boats. Cost of tents. — Learn necessary arrangements for a 
Shikar party. Much to be thought of ; considerable difficulty in 
giving satisfaction. — ^Do not organize parties for too many sportsmen. 
Difficulties increase with numbers. Water must be thought of for the 
whole camp ; also supplies 98 

Lbttbb No. 25. 

Shooting in the Doorga-Poojah holidays. These holidays taken 
by all men. Boats generally used at such times; tents in drier 
seasons. — ^Bullocks, carts, and carriage. — Cover your howdahs, — ^Pre- 



X SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Page 
cautions against storms. — Horses to be stabled in hnts. — Gk) round tbe 

camp before going to bed. — Objections to large parties 101 

Lbttbb Na 26. 

Visits to Zemindars and Planters. Objections to such visits. — ^Be 
careful to keep on good terms with Landholders. Consequences of 
inconsiderate treatment of a native landlord. — ^Travel at night and save 
time. — River travelling. — Cooking arrangements. Charcoal. Drinking- 
water. — Blacksmith and Bheesty 104 

Lbttbb No. 27. 

Preparation of skulls and skins. — Preservatives. Arsenic. Alum. — 
Carry a compass. — Locate Elephants sometimes at a distance from camp, 
and ride to and fro. — Rice may be used as food for horses occasionally. — 
Remarks on the cost of Shikar. At first you must moderate expenditure. 
Usual social amusements must be given up 108 

Lbttbb No. 28.— T76?J5i2& 

The first Tiger I saw. — Obhyah country. The Burrin. — How I failed 
at my first attempt. — ^If possible do not disturb a Tiger late in the day. 
— ^The Judge introduces me to my first Tiger, and instructs me. — Kite 
flies away with a Tiger. — ^Backergunge. — ^The Soonderbunds. Difficulties 
connected with Sport there Ill 

Lbttbb No. 29. 

Size of Tigers: seldom exceed 11 feet. — Anecdote of firing into a 
Tiger with small shot. — ^Number of Tigers killed by one man. — A 
youngster or a stranger requires to be taught the science of Tiger- 
shooting. — ^Tiger-shooting in Duckin Shabazpore. I prepare boats 
and transport Elephants to the island in the Megna. — Balam boats. — 
Send Elephants across. — ^Employ Shikarry in getting true information . 116 

Lbttbb No. 30. 

The cotmtry to be beaten up. — Sport with Tigers. — Bad weather. — 
Several Tigers. — A very hard day. Wasps. Difficulties. Fighting 
Tiger. Fighting Tigress : attacks the Elephant. Another Tiger. 
Obliged to turn homewards. Remarks on this day^s sport. — ^Man-killer. 
— ^Try to kill a brace of Tigers right and left. Fail, and then kill the 
two. A third large and savage Tiger. Brilliant charge 119 



CONTENTS. xl 

Lbttkb No. 31. 

Page 

Another trip to the islands. — A roaring Tiger. — ^BofEaloes. — Sport 
flags. — ^Beat a likely jungle, T^hich a native Shikarry had disturbed. — 
Find that a Tiger had been shot by a poisoned arrow, and eaten by wife 
and daughter. — Kill these two Tigers. — Tigers feed on each other, 
and every other things even grasshoppers. — I try a dish of locusts. — ^ 
Long hunt after Tigers. Find at last. — ^Budderuddeen hunts up the 
trail. Place scouts on trees, and eventually bag this shirking Tigress. — 
Arrangements for shooting while engaged on duty in the interior of 
districts. — Grand fight with a Man-killer 123 

LXTTBB No. 82. 

Timers not often met without being first reported. — ^A good fight, and 
Elephant badly woimded. — Certain animals show that Tigers are about. 
Vultures, Crows, &;c. — Restless Hogs induce me to beat a jungle over 
again and kill a Tiger. — ^Tigers roaring. — Failure of sport owing to want 
of light. Fail also next morning. — Let an Elephant have a companion 
if game is to be beaten towards you, or they get frightened. — Some 
Elephants give notice when they pass a Tiger's track. — ^Tigers credited 
with much destruction really committed by Leopards. — Further remarks 
on this subject 127 

LBTTB& No. 38. 

Tigers attracted to the same spots. When one is killed, another may 
be expected after a few seasons. — Tigers as a rule haunt distant places. 
Leopards generally live near villages. — ^Tigers hide in very light jungle, 
and are sometimes passed by. Often leave heavy jungles at once : 
sometimes cling to them till the last. — Value of a Shikarry. — ^Beaters. 
— Different jungles. Sometimes uselessly overgrown, but get reduced 
by burning. — Patches and sides of nullahs. — Churs and tamarisk. — 
Forests. — Bhowal jungles. Rose-bush. Null. — Tanks. Taradham. — 
Cane-brakes. — Screw-pine 182 

Lbtteb No. 34. 

Hill forests not practicable for sport. — Oood ground in Assam, which 
may be reached near the Garrow Hills. — Shikarry should look up all 
grounds in the hotweatherandearly rains. — Dinkybon. — Various districts. 
— Mymensing; confine my ftittire remarks to that district. — Panch 
Tikree. Sowdaugor Mahout puts me below instead of above a Tiger. — 
A few days' sport at Tikree with two planters. Arrangements. KiU two 
Tigers. Kill a Bear, Hog-Deer, and Floriken ♦ . . 136 



xfi SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

Lbtteb No. 35. 

Page 
Go after Buffaloes. Kill two. — EiU Ducks and Snipe. — ^Beat the 

banks of the Bunsee. — Sambhur Deer. — Peafowl and Jungle-fowl, Black 

Partridges, Hares, Floriken, Godwits. — A rare kind of Hare. — ^The 

total bag. — Strangers request me to show them sport. I endeavour to 

do so. Journey in haste from Dacca to the banks of the Brahmapootra. 

Put up a Tiger just before dark. Try the shouting dodge : it answers. 

Home by compass and starlight. — Another day at Tikree 141 

Lbttbb No. 36. 

Bees at Mymensing, — Bees and Tigers at Chur Gabsara. Difficulties 
at Gabsara, and how they were met. — ^Ponky ground. — ^A Leopard; one 
Tiger. — Divide forces and catch the Tigers on their way back to the bees. 
— ^A long shot. — A Tiger on the open sands. — The benefit of a breech- 
loader 145 

Lbttbb No. 87. 

An expedition to the Brahmapootra Churs for Tigers. Want of 
knowledge beforehand. Too early for the best sport. My two com- 
panions. Buckland and his style of managing Elephants. Lyall, the 
straight man. Open sport with a Tiger in very light jungle. Poor 
sport and very bad weather. A gun bursts. Hot on Rhinoceros, but no 
luck. — Sport improves. — Hog-hunting destroyed by the armed police. 
Anecdote as to the smartness of these police as soldiers. — Kill three 
Tigers. — Grand sport at Churs Gothail, Tubra, and Hurgela. Kve 
Tigers in one day. — Curious effect of a shot. — Fine scene with a jump- 
ing Tigress. — Remarks as to Tigers jumping on Elephants. Elephant 
rolls up her trunk when a Tiger charges 148 

Lbttbb No. 38. 

Best day's sport of all. — Hear of Tigers at Kewah Chur, and visit it 
late in the day. Swim Elephants across. Wound a Tigress and take 
cubs. Leave howdahs on the island and Elephants in the village on 
the mainland. — Sport on the island next day. Find some fighting 
Tigers, which repeatedly put us to flight. Put my howdah on a stauncher 
Elephant with Sowdaugor Mahout, and at last kill those fighting Tigers 
and a third. Remarks on the day 152 

Lbttbb No. 89. 

The Jungles of Eastern Bengal not suited for sport on foot, and 
Elephants generally used. — Ameers of Scinde shot Tigers from cages. — 



CONTENTS. nil 

Page 
Shooting from '' macbans '' not common except by native sliikarries : is 

poor sport at best. — ^Tigers occasionallj killed on foot. Objections to 
trying to kiU Tigers single-handed on foot. — Difficult for one man to 
kill with certainty a Tiger coming straight at him. Even a well-placed 
ball may not be instantaneonsly effective. Very different if several sports- 
men stand by each other. Death of a friend who went up to a woimded 
Tiger on foot. — Death of a Tiger at Comilla head station. — ^Tigers in 
inundations. — ^Tiger killed by a French gentleman 166 

Lbttbb No. 40. 

Sport at Cuttack. — Sportsmen scarce in Orissa ; but a good sporting 
country^ which requires much looking up, and would require much 
pains and trouble. — ^A hank at Cuttack. Want of good preparations. 
First day on platforms. Second day rouse a Tigress unexpectedly : 
kill her on foot. Behaviour of Europeans and natives. — Tigers on 
trees in inundations 160 

LxTTBB No. 41.— BUFFALOES. 

The Bengal Buffalo. Savage and hard to kill ; vital spots where he 
may be wounded. — Buffalo-shooting from horseback. — Difficult to find 
good riding-ground. — Riding Buffaloes near Sreemoodee. — ^The planter. 
— Shooting from the herd. Solitary male Buffalo : killing him no easy 
work. — ^The Buffalo near BuUumara. Man killed. Battle with the Uma. 
— ^A savage Buffalo knocks over horse and rider and kiUs the horse . . 164 

Lbttbb No. 42. 

Bide after a Buffalo at Sabhar. — Unlucky ride after a Buffalo in 
Pumeah; narrow escape. The Buffalo gets off. — Shooting from 
howdahs. — ^Tame and wild Buffaloes. — Buffalo-shooting on foot : in 
some ways very dangerous 168 

Lbttbb No. 43. 

Buffaloes at Backergnnge. Sport with the same. Knock over the 
big bull : he gets up unexpectedly and I get a ducking. — My friend 
the Deputy Collector tossed by a Buffalo into a tree and killed. — Wild 
Cattle at Chur Siddhee 172 

Lbttbb No. 44. 

Jungle-fowl. — ^Tippera Jungle-fowl superior to those of most districts. 
Excellent sport to be got. Jungles described. — ^The Jungle-cock. — My 



SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Page 
great fondness for this sport. I shoot on Elephants, which is novel. — 

Chittagong ideas as to sport : how to work it. — Use of Elephants. — 

Preservation 175 

Lbttks No. 45. 

Charming variety of animals and birds met with in Tippera. Game 
birds; Pigeons; bright-plumaged birds. TheMuthoora. Polyplectron. 
— ^A government road all along the best ground. — Gtxxl sport and 
agreeable meeting, — Musicians and hunters. — Birds easily missed.— 
Snipe-shooting between jungles 179 

Lbtteb No. 46. 

Payment of beaters. — ^Theft of Jungle-fowl. Summary punishment of 
thief. The day's bag. — Pleasant evening party. — Large game must 
naturally remove to distant places before civilization. The hills afford 
safe retreat. — Jungle-fowl shot by sneaking and by crackers, and 
occasionally when beating for other game . . . .' 184 

Lbttbb No. 47. 

Rhinoceros : two kinds. — Backergunge Soonderbunds. — Resolve to 
kill a Rhinoceros^ and attempt to do so. Reach the ground in boats. 
Where to hit the animal. — ^The jungle. — We are taken to a Rhinoceros 
and left alone. We kill him with a single ball^ and fire at others. — 
Abundance of game in this country^ but difficulty in the pursuit of it . 188 

Lbttbb No. 48. 

Rhinoceros indicus : the jungles in which it is found near Assam. I 
never shot one. Elephants much afraid of them. — Bears. — ^A Badger. 
— ^Bears not numerous now in Bengal. Large skull. The cries of the 
wounded. Courage. — Kill three Bears. — Often shot on foot in other parts 
of India^ but the jungles of Eastern Bengal not open enough for that 
sport. Occasionally speared from horseback. — Bears tenacious of life. 
Very numerous in Cuttack. Destructive to sugar-canes. Feast on 
bees and honey 192 

Lbtteb No. 49. 

Leopards : abundant. Only one kind^ often called Panther^ referred 
to in these letters. Very numerous in some places. — The Frenchman and 
his dog in Tippera. — Generally dogs useless. — A Leopard carries off a dog 
from my tent door. — The Pheal. — Leopard-shooting on foot. — ^Take a 
deal of killing : a fairly placed shot not immediately fatal 196 



CONTENTS. 



No. 60. Page 

A Leopard gets hold of me and pimislies me severely. — ^Three Leopards 
at once. — ^Effects of my manling. — Leopards on trees : in huts. Shot 
by poisoned arrows. Vary greatly in size without decided specific differ- 
ence. Constantly found when beating for other game. Afford only 
inferior sport 199 

Lbtteb No. 51. 

Deer. Different kinds to be met with. — Hog-Deer. At times easy to 
shoot^ at times difficult. Often speared from horseback when hogs are 
scarce and ground suitable. — Fatal accident deer-shooting in rosebush- 
jungle in Mymensing. — Great numbers of Deer. — A vicious male 
Elephant. — Hog-Deer might be coursed with greyhounds. — ^The Sambhur 
Deer. Stalking unknown in Bengal. Oenerally killed at close quarters. 
He allows a near approach. Often carries off a number of bullets. 
Horns not so large as to the westward 208 

Lbttsb No. 62. 

Deer over in other countries not always difficult to approach. — ^The 
Spotted Deer. Not common and only to be found in some districts. I 
kiU some at Obhyah in Rajshahye and some fine Peacocks. — The Swamp- 
Deer. Its habitat. Great numbers driven into small dry and high spots 
in inundations in Sylhet. I kill several^ but think the sport poor. — Deer 
as a rule not shot at if a Tiger is expected. — ^The Barking-Deer. — Remarks 
on Deer-shooting. — Antelope only now to be found in Pumeah. Reasons 
why we did not shoot them there. — ^To ride and spear an Antelope is 
considered a great feat 208 

Lbttbb No. 53. 

GFame Birds in Bengal. — Partridges. The Black or Francolin. Com- 
mon in many districts^ but not in Tippera^ Noakholly^ or Chittagong. — 
My compound at Pumeah. — The Khyah Partridge. Noisy and hard to 
flush more than once. — ^The Quail. Quail-years. Large bags made in 
those years. — Receipts for cooking Quails. — ^The Bengal Floriken. 
Common only in some districts ; considered a prize and excellent on table. 
Handsome plumage 213 

Letteb No. 64. 

Wildfowl. — ^The sport with Wildfowl in India most excellent. Cheaply 
got : with some trouble to be enjoyed from nearly all districts. Best 



XTi SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Piige 
time for. — Obtain the good offices of Planters, Zemindars^ and Villagers 

so as to have the land and waters kept undisturbed. — Sport more enjoy- 
able than the wildfowling of England. — The Coolen. — ^Budderuddeen as 
a Shikarry after Wildfowl. — Difficulty in obtaining my first Coolen. 
How we bagged six at last in one morning. — ^The Sayrus 217 

Lbttbb No. 65. 

Various large Waders useful as food for native attendants. — Curlews 
and sport with them. — Bitterns. — ^The Heron tribe. — ^Bird-catchers. — 
Kalims. — ^The Khora. — Cotton-Teal and Whistling-Teal. — Godwits and 
Plover^ and various birds. — Rafts : easily made as a makeshift . . . 222 

Lbtteb No. 66. 

Rupooshdee. — Management of the tenantry. — My first Indian Goose. 
— Goose-shooting. Budderuddeen excelled at this sport. — ^Different 
kinds of Geese. — Duck-shooting. No large bags without a good Duck- 
gun. For the first ten years I had none^ then I order one to be made. 
— Duck-gun described. — ^Prepare everything for sport beforehand. — How 
to work the sport. — Avoid one particular day. — Sport in the Maldah 
district. — Do not let guns go in separate boats. — When to fire the Duck- 
gun. — ^The cripple-chase. — Send attendants to mark other flocks while you 
pick up the slain 226 

Lbttsb No. 67. 

Blue-winged Teal most numerous. — After disturbing the large flocks, 
go after small parties and different kinds of Ducks. — ^The Grey Duck. — 
The Pintail and others. — The Pink-headed Duck only in Purneah. — 
The Brahminy Duck. — ^Native Wildfowl-catchers 231 

Lbtteb No. 68. 

Crocodiles. — Very destructive, especially in Purneah. — ^Accidents. — 
Cut off a man's leg. — Sport with Crocodiles killed by Burmese Shikar- 
ries. — Shooting Crocodiles. — Take baits. — ^Way of catching them . . . 235 

Lkttkb No. 69. 

Snakes. Terribly destructive, but to natives only. — The Cobra di 
Capello. No antidote or recovery when a vigorous Cobra has injected his 
venom. — Catching Cobras. — Mungoose and every other animal equally 
susceptible if really bitten. — Mungoose and Cobra. — Fond of deserted 
outhouses. — Move about after sunset. — How the poison is extracted. — 
Poisoned arrows 239 



LxTTKB No. 60. I 

The Ophiopba^os. Largest venomouB anake known. Scarce. I 
shoot one. Not known in many districta. Feeds on Cobras. Have one 
fed befbre me by the snakemen. — The Daboia. The first I killed. The 
Frenchman kills one with hia hands. Sowdangor Mahont catches these 
snakes. — The Bungarus. Rather aggressive. Eats other snakes. — ^The 
Kerait. — The Qreen Viper. — The Python. — Other harmless snakes. — 
Water-Snakes S 



LBTTXIt No. 61. 

Jackal-hunting. Too slow for real sport. Pleaaant amnsement if 
fogs do not interfere in the early mornings. Sport with hounda. — 
Foxea. Useless for sport, feed much on doves. — Hares and coursing. — 
Jackal's bites. — Mad Jackals and dogs. — Immediate application of lunar 
caustic generally a preventive of subsequent hydrophobia. — Fishing not 
sufficiently learnt by me. — Condiision 347 

POSTSCBIPT 251 

Index and Olossaby or Indian Words 268 



LIST OF PLATES. 



Page 

1. Spearing a Leopard, by Lionel Inolis^ Esq. Engraved by J. Smit. 

Frontispiece 

2. Remarkable Horns of Swamp-Deer^ from a photograph 24 



8. The old Blue Boar of Tippera^ by L. Inolis, Esq 26 

4. A correct Spear-head 42 

5. A little Overridden^ from a pictore in the possession of R. P. 

Jenkins^ Esq 49 

6. A Hog jinks^ from a pictore in the possession of R. P. Jenkins^ 

Esq 58 

7. A Chnr-Siddhee Hog charges. Engraved by J. Smit 73 

8. The Author and a Dead Hog^ from a photograph by Joseph Shil- 

LiNOFORD, Esq.^ Senior of Eolassy Factory^ Pumeah 80 

9. An Elephant and Howdah, from a photograph 91 

10. A Scrimmage with a Tiger^ by L. Inqlis^ Esq 128 



SPORT 



IN 



EASTERN BENGAL. 



Lbttbb No. 1.— introductory. 

You liave asked me to give yon the benefit of my advice and experience in 
sliikar matters in Eastern Bengal^ to enable yon, as a young English 
gentleman appointed to H.M/s Civil Service, to employ to the utmost 
sporting advantage such time as you may be able to spare from a zealous 
and conscientious fulfilment of your duties as a Government official, during 
a career now beginning, and which it is to be hoped may extend over a 
quarter of a century. I propose to do this for you in a series of letters, 
pointing out the manner in which you may spend your leisure, your holidays — 
Christian, Mahommedan, and Hindoo-^and such special leave as you may be 
able to obtain. I trust these letters,f ounded on notes in a diary kept since 1847, 
and memory and other sources of information, may be of real use to you : at 
any rate they will contain the record of my shooting-experience in Eastern 
Bengal for a very long period, and give details of a very long series of years 
in which I endeavoured to obtain the greatest amount of sport I could, 
regardless of other amusements and at a very large annual outlay ; and also 
contain accounts of adventures on horseback and in the howdah, with spear, 
rifle, and gun, which I have been very constantly urged by many friends to 
put on record. 

Things must have greatly changed since the events to be related in these 
letters took place, and you must not expect to go to the very places I have 
named and find sport such as I did. This, however, is natural and has 
always been so. At one time Cossim Bazaar near Moorshedabad was the 

B 



d SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

beat place for a tiger-shooting party. There are no tigers there now. Tiger- 
shooters go nearer Assam and the foot of the Himalayas for their sport. 
Long before my time the best hog-hunting in the NoakhoUy district was 
found between Tippera and Suderam^ but no hog was left in that country 
when I joined. My best sport was at Siddhee and Hingootea^ but the latter 
chur was carried off by the encroachment of the Megna river before I left 
India. Thus you too, if you properly seek for the best sport, must be 
prepared to look for it not in the same places, but in similar though different 
ground. 



Lettee No. 2.— the SHIKARRY. 

A good Slukarry essential to all sport. A Mahommedan for choice ; reasons for this. — 
Certain necessary qualifications ; obedience and truthfulness. — My man Buddemddeen. 
— Do not engage a Calcutta man.*— His chief use. — ^In addition to using the Slukarry, 
use other methods of obtaining knowledge as to sport. — ^If you secure a good Shikarry, 
take pains to retain his services. 

The first necessary thing is to have a good shikarry. You should choose a 
Mahommedan. I have known good Hindoo shikarries, but for many 
reasons a Mahommedan is preferable. Very much of your sport in Eastern 
Bengal will be connected with boats. A Mussulman is much more at home 
on a boat than a Hindoo. He will eat on board, and he will join in the meals 
cooked by other Musselmans. There is but one '' jat,'' so to speak, of 
Mahommedans, but the different sects of Hindoos, all feeding and cooking 
separately, are numerous : some must cook in a limited circle on land ; if 
this circle should be invaded the meal is thrown away. Most mahouts are 
Mahommedan, and a Hindoo shikarry cannot associate at meals with them. 

Most of the villages from which the best information can be obtained in 
lonely places are Mahommedan. Hindoos often object to animals being killed 
in the neighbourhood of their homes. They religiously protect peacocks and 
jungle-fowl, and, in a lesser degree, hogs and buffaloes, and generally are 
more averse to giving '^khubber^' even of tigers than Mahommedans. 
Mahommedans also are more willing to cultivate jungly portions of distant 
coimtry where the best sport is likely to be found. Hindoos cling to the old 
neighbourhood of their families. For these reasons, and many more which I 
could give if required, I prefer a Mahommedan shikarry in Eastern Bengal to 
a Hindoo. 

The shikarry would naturally be a shikarry by profession, fond of sport 
and a keen observer of the habits of birds and animals. But the chief points 
are that he should be obedient, and go exactly where he is ordered, and 
truthful, telling you what he sees with his own eyes — ^not reporting as his own 



THE SHIKARBY. 8 

actual observation the mere hearsay information picked up* from here^ there^ 
and everywlierey except from the exact places he was told to examine. 

I had only two shikarries between 1847 and 1872. The first was a 
Calcutta man^ and he certainly knew every acre of good ground within twelve 
miles of Calcutta. Every place where snipe were ever to be found, and the 
likely times to find them^ he knew^ and a little about ducks ; but he was a liar 
and a thief ^ and required most careful management. .After I left Calcutta he 
obtained easy employment as a chuprassy and a shikarry with a sporting 
Calcutta merchant. My second was a Noakholly man^ Budderuddeen by 
name— an honesty truthful, hardworking man^ with an eye like a telescope, and 
on whose reports I could always rely. He stayed with me during all my 
Indian career, and made himself happy in all districts but Pumeah. I will 
say little about him here, as he will be constantly referred to afterwardB. He 
was rather delicate and given to fevers. 

You must not choose a Calcutta man, but take one used to the mofhssil, 
with no objection to going great distances from his home. You will find, if 
your shikarry suits you and you suit him, that reasonable leave once a year, 
say in the rains, will content him ; but a Calcutta man knows nothing except 
about snipe, and will be always wishing to go home, and for that purpose he 
wiU invent deaths and births, marriages and festivals, and any number of 
pressing reasons for his presence at his home. 

Finally, referring to your selection of a shikarry, I may say that he is not 
easily to be found — ^that, for the most part, he must be '' Fit non nascitur.'' 
You will have to teach him a very good deal. If you cannot hear of a good 
man who has been a sahib's servant before, you must search among your own 
or the police oomedwars^ or hopeful aspirants for any place of pay. Crowds 
of these men flock to the Government officers who have any paltry appoint- 
ments to give away. The heads of the police department, the Nazirs of the 
magistrates, and collector's officer know numbers of active individuals willing 
to go at once to any part of the zillah, and after trying a few of these you 
ought to hit off a likely individual. 

The ordinary value of a shikarry near the place where you may be stationed 
consists in his being able to afford you the best employment for the limited 
time you may be able to give to sport, by ascertaining where game is assuredly 
to be found, and enabling you to avoid wearisome waste of time in searching 
for sport in places where game does not exist or is scarce. In snipe-shooting 
correct information is invaluable, and it was the secret of very much of my 
own success, which was generally attributed by others to luck. The ground 
that is good at one time is certain to be useless at another, with reference to all 
game, lai^e or small, winged or hoofed ; but for snipe the ground which is 
best one day may be useless three days later, and the art of being able to hit 
off the best snipe-ground just when most frequented by the birds requires 
observation and constant examination of the same spots. Harvest and sowing- 

b2 



4 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

operations^ weather^ height and condition of crops^ even certain winds require 
to be taken into consideration^ and such matters have to be carefully thought 
over by a shikarry who knows his business. In the neighbourhood of his 
own home he probably would have a fair knowledge of the state of the 
country all the year round; but away from his home he has all this to learn ; 
so when there is nothing else for him to do you can direct him to report as to 
the state of the ground, the jungle, and the crops in any villages, or estates, 
or pergunnahs which you may fix on from the map. 

If there should be good sportsmen at the station to which yon may be 
appointed, you will of course avail yoturself of their knowledge and experience ; 
but if there are no sahibs sportingly disposed, or if you are alone, and I may 
say generally, you will have to work out a country new to you entirely from 
your own resources. The best snipe-ground near the station and the best 
meets for hog-hunting and shooting are usually supposed to be well known, 
but a country (except in snipe and ducks) which is hard worked one season is 
seldom so good the next, and it should be the aim of the shikarry to give you 
information of the best and the middling and the worst country at the time 
you want to try that particular neighbourhood. I invariably found that 
Sudderuddeen soon knew every place where the residents habitually hunted 
or shot, and quickly improved on that knowledge. I dare say this will appear 
in some of the following letters. 

If you have obtained a man who, after full trial, proves himself a valuable 
servant, and one whose services you desire to retain permanently — a shikarry 
who, in addition to obedience and truthfulness, possesses a keen fondness for 
all manner of shikar, has telescopic powers of eyesight, can be perfectly silent 
under trying circumstances, who understands marking birds both alive and 
when shot, who can track animals and tell the difference between a footmark 
a day old and one that has been imprinted within the hour, who can tell the 
mark of a boar or a buck from that of a sow or a doe, who can distinguish 
between a grey duck and a pintail in the air, who knows how to catch hold 
of a tame buffalo or cow and guide him by the tail close up to the wary wild- 
fowl, or who possesses more accomplishments than these — ^you should bind him 
to you for ever with kindness and good pay. You must take an interest in his 
family, allow him leave when requisite, in the rains, to visit his home, you 
must get paltry Government appointments for his sous and his brothers and 
his nephews, you must have him tended in sickness and well clothed in 
winter, and take the greatest care of him, for if he is all I have hinted at he 
will be a most valuable aid to you — ^a kind of right hand at all your sport. 



FINDING DISTRICTS FOR GOOD SPORT. 



Letter No. 3. 

Ways of finding out the capabilities of a district for good sport. Examine all procurable 
maps : take regular rides in all directions and make notes ; make Shikarrj report on 
tracts noted in the maps, especially where no shooting is going on. — Remarks as to Snipe- 
ground. — Proper inquiry demands disregard of ordinary fashionable daily routine. 
Inquiry from boats in districts much cut up with streams. — How sport from a district 
like Dacca may be ensured. — Shooting to be got from Calcutta. 

If you are appointed to a station and have to find out the shikar capabilities 
of the neighbourhood for yourself, as far as snipe and perhaps duck are con- 
cerned you might follow the plan which I generally attempted to carry out, 
where good roads were found, or even where the generality of the ground 
could be ridden over on horseback. This is not possible in some districts, 
such as Backergunge or Dacca; but in most districts, such as Rajshahye, 
Tippera, or Jessore, you can go anywhere in a circle within a radius of twelve 
miles from headquarters. You should first secure a good map and learn as 
much as possible from this as to the roads, villages, jheels, bheels, and jungles, 
thannas, and hills if there are any ; and every morning or evening when you 
have leisure you should ride out to certain places, taking note of every thing, 
and making all possible inquiries as to the land, crops, and jungles, and 
writing down the names of places for reference in a book or diary. If you 
consider certain localities look promising, you can almost always find in the 
Collector's office Government maps on a very large scale, and by studying 
them you will obtain an intimate knowledge of the nature of the country and 
the size of the villages, and see the exact position of all watery and marshy 
areas ; the kinds of jungle will also be marked. After this you should send 
your shikarry to examine carefully certain particular spots and to report on 
them. In this way, in August, you should find out fairly what ground is 
likely to be good for snipe-shooting in all September and October; and by 
the time you have enjoyed the best snipe-shooting to be got within the circle 
above mentioned in those months, you will have had opportunities of learning 
about any places likely to afford hog-hunting or deer-shooting, and generally 
you may consider that a jheel, or low-lying country where a large space is 
covered by water and surrounded with uninhabited jungles of any kind (grass, 
rushes, or hoogla), will at some date yield good snipe-shooting, at another 
duck-shooting ; and if deer and hog frequent the country at all, such places 
are sure to be resorted to by them at some season, probably when the crops 
in the neighbourhood are ripening ; and as the crops are harvested and the 
grassy jungles half burnt, and the ground much dried up, and the amount of 
water greatly lessened, the best sport may be expected. 

Wherever large plains of rice cultivation exist you may suppose, till your 
inquiries prove the contrary, that when the ground is in certain order and 
the crop not too thick, snipe should abound. In such land probably snipe- 



6 8P0BT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

shooting will be good for only two or tliree days in the season. It must be 
your endeavour with the aid of your shikarry to hit off these few days. 

Snipe are very fond of fields where the rice-crop is about one foot or 
eighteen inches high^ and the grotind a sticky mud just covered with about an 
inch of water ; but after two sunny days this becomes too dry^ and after two 
days of heavy wet the water is too deep. You may enjoy quite splendid 
sport from a Monday to a Wednesday and on Saturday fail to see a bird on 
the ground ; in this sort of inquiry the value of a good shikarry is untold. 

But to carry out such investigation and to obtain such intimate knowledge 
of a district new to you, you must give up all attendance on " The Mall ; *' 
the pleasant morning and evening drives with the charming ladies of the 
station must be foregone, and you must expect to be heartily abused for your 
proceedings. But if, on the other hand, you fall in with the usual station 
routine habits, and ride round the racecourse in the morning, play rackets 
and lawn-tennis and saunter among the carriages in the twilight^ you will get 
just as much snipe-shooting as the old married fogies of the station tell you 
was got last year, and no more and no better. 

In districts where there are no roads, or only one road running right 
through the whole district, probably the neighbouriDg country can only be 
learnt by sending your shikarry about in boats. If possible, get transferred 
to another district. If you cannot arrange this, and while you are obliged to 
stay in such a zillah, you must make your shikarry search and find out all 
places which you can reach in a night's row in a boat. You will have to 
trust your shikarry for this, for it would be waste of time to go about in a 
boat yourself. Owing to this difficulty about roads, I believe many excellent 
shooting and hunting localities remain tmvisited. 

If stationed at Dacca, where really good snipe-shooting is not to be got 
close at hand, by a little arrangement with sportsmen at Tippera in this sort 
of way you may manage it. You can ride to Naranigunge after office, drop 
down to Doudcandee in the night in a boat, and ride to Burkampta or the 
neighbourhood of Comilla in the early morning, and the Tippera sahibs 
should be able to show you in September, October, and November very first- 
rate snipe-shooting. I have done this myself, and have seen it done by 
others ; but it is only a very few men who will take this trouble for snipe- 
shooting. Except you take trouble and spend money you cannot expect to 
get real good shooting from any station. 

For years the Dacca men, and indeed at times Dacca men alone, worked 
the hog-hunting of the Tippera district at Doudcandee and south of it, and 
for years no hog would be speared in those pergunnahs. When out hog- 
hunting in autumn and early winter you cannot fail to come on plenty of 
snipe- and duck-ground; and after the jungles have been beaten and the hogs 
slain, and a few days of rest allowed to the country, you can revisit the 
marshy and watery places and work the snipe and ducks. 



SNIFEUiROUNDB. 7 

From Calcatta yon can get excellent snipe-shooting from August till the 
end of Aprils by studying the maps of the surrounding country (and I 
must impress upon you that there is nothing so permanently useful for all 
shikar purposes as the possession of the best maps of every place you desire 
to have sport in), by examining the railroads, rivers, watercourses, roads, 
and dawk-routes, and marking the damp and marshy places, the stations, 
police offices, planters' factories, and villages where you may be certatu of 
obtaining the shelter of a shed for one night (all that is required for a Bengal 
sportsman), or even by marking spots where you can pitch a tent. By ar- 
ranging to visit these with the aid of rail, buggy, riding-horse, palkee, and 
boat, it is perfectly astonishing what a choice of good ground you may have. 
By rail to the northward, for instance, there commences Bhaga bheel, 
which in 1850 was about as good snipe-ground as Bengal could show. I 
understand it is too much shot over now by Calcutta men ; near it, however, 
there are at least eight excellent places seldom resorted to. Tou could find out 
all the good ground between Calcutta and Ooalundo, and arrange for your 
camp or tent at many places in the Nuddeah district. 

You may work all the ground for fifty miles in a north-westerly direction 
towards and beyond Hoogly and Burdwan. By the aid of the river and roads 
you may visit the best bheels between the Botanical Oardens and Tumlook. 
I have had splendid shooting on the right bank of the river, six hours 
below Budgebudge, and I have hunted hogs with the Tent Club at Tumlook, 
having left my judge's seat at Jessore at 3.30 p.m., riding, driving, going in 
palkee, driving through Calcutta and for some three stages beyond, getting 
into a boat, and turning up in time at the meet next morning. 

In a south and south-easterly direction you will find good snipe- and quail- 
ground in many places down as far as Diamond Harbour and on both sides 
of the raU to Port Canning, and I have had glorious sport in this direction 
with hogs. 

To the east is a country which, if well worked by boat, yields excellent 
snipe-shooting amongst and beyond the saltwater lakes. 

In a north-easterly direction near Jessore duck- and snipe-shooting are 
available, and the sport of both kinds is excellent. 

By working the country somewhat in the manner I have pointed out, and 
with the aid of a good shikarry, through whom you must ascertain if the 
game is abundant in the right place at the time you desire to work it, and by 
the assistance of friends among district officials and planters (the best and 
most hospitable fellows in the world, to whom I have been indebted for a 
very large share of the best sport in my life), and by a liberal expenditure of 
money for travelling, you may obtain good sport from every district in 
Eastern Bengal. 

Should you be stationed at those delightful districts where you can find the 
best snipe-shooting possible within five miles, where you can ride out and 



8 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

kill your hog and be back at noon, or shoot four or five hog-deer and eight 
or ten braee of blacks (partridges not natives) and return to lunch, you will 
be lucky, and should ask some of your friends stationed at places where 
shikar can only be got at a great distance by labour and expenditure to join 
you when holidays occur. 



Letter No. 4. 

Remarks on different districts and on opportunities for absence from official duties. — ^An 
officer is bound to travel about his district, and can create leisure by travelling fiister 
than his official attendants. — Your Shikarry should go before. — Budderuddeen's style of 
report. — Sporting-stations and districts not generally the most sought after by young 
civilians. — A Mend's renmrks on Noakholly. 

TiPPE&A is as good a district for snipe-shooting as any I was ever stationed 
at. Very large bags can be made close to the station of Noakholly, and on 
the beautiful churs between it and the great Megna river. From Chittagong 
excellent shooting is to be found close to the station and on the seanshore 
near Aleshur flagstafif^ and in almost every pergunnah and at the foot of the 
hills : Rajshahye^ Mymensing, Maldah, and nearly every other zillah yields 
good snipe-shooting. But from Backergunge and Dacca Sudder stations 
you must go to a distance before you will get fair snipe-shooting. In both 
these districts^ if you know the places and the way to get at them^ abundant 
sport can be got, but you must journey several hours by boat in autumn. 
After Christmas in Dacca you may cross the country on horseback. 

Travelling by night in boats or palkee is easy and comfortable, and when 
roads are good you can drive long distances by moonlight ; for instance, I 
used to shoot over all the country near Zaroorgunge, 40 miles from Chitta- 
gong, driving there at night in a buggy. I used to shoot over Fanch Tikree 
bheel, one of the very best places for every kind of sport in Mymensing, by 
riding through the Bhowal jungle at night. Some people said it was a 
tempting of Frovidence as tigers abounded, but a more delicious moonlight 
ride it is not easy to conceive. All these ways of economizing time and 
getting over distances have to be observed by a Government officer, whose 
official labours afford him but scant leisure for the proper pursuit of the ever 
enjoyable and health-giving recreation of sport. As a rule, I endeavoured to 
spend every official holiday, whether Hindoo or Mahommedan, Christian or 
Pagan, in the enjoyment of some sport or other, and by judicious arrange- 
ment of official work an extra day could be often obtained. For instance, 
suppose Monday and Tuesday to be Hindoo holidays, Saturday might be 
stolen and office " very occasionally ^' closed at 3 p.m. on Friday. With a 
horse ready saddled at the cutcherry door, and two or three more each 



BaDDERUDDEEN'S REPORT. 9 

stationed at every eight miles^ and at the end of these a palkee or a boat, 70a 
might journey rapidly on till Saturday morning to your camp or place of 
meeting. On Tuesday afternoon^ after a long morning's hunt of some sort^ 
you would start on the return journey and be duly present at your desk on 
Wednesday at 11 a.m. In this way I have enjoyed three continuous days 
of shikar at least once or twice every season^ especially during the Christmas 
holidays. 

It is a necessary and imperative duty that an officer should constantly visit 
every part of his district, and hold his office for a time in such places. It 
takes long for the amlah, the clerks, the vakeels and the suitors, the police, 
the pffs., the criminals and their guards to reach the spots where the huzool 
intends to stay for, say, a week. If such place should be, say, thirty miles 
from headquarters, the whole establishment could not possibly be put down 
at the appointed spot in three days. If you were to ride or get over to the 
place during the first night by palkee or boat travelling and riding and 
driving, you would have at least three days to prove the value of the inquiries 
made by, and the information gained from, your shikarry, who would have 
scouted out the whole neighbourhood for a week or two before your arrival. 
I can remember with the greatest of pleasure the eagerness with which, 
after a little sleep during the last few hours of darkness, and during that 
delicious petty meal, the chota hazari, in camp at early daybreak, I have listened 
many a time and oft to Budderuddeen^s report. How that in two places 
tigers had killed a day and two days before; that there was a dtal of 
tree-jungle difficult to beat, or that the beasts lived near impenetrable moist 
bheels, bordered by quicksands and morass, across which no elephant could 
pass, and out of which they must be kept ; or that the bheel in the centre of 
the valley was full of ducks and its borders swarmed with hog-deer, and that 
there were a few large hogs where the rushes were thickest, khyah partridge 
in the rose-bushes, and floriken in the dry grass ; that a large herd of 
buffaloes came nightly near the crops, but disappeared into the thick jungle 
when the sun got high ; that the groimd was fine for pig-sticking, but full of 
hidden cut drains for irrigation ; and so on. I look back to the consultations 
held immediately with, most likely, the friendly planter who had agreed to 
meet me at this camp, and the civilian officer from a neighbouring bad station, 
where no handy shikar was to be got, as to whether we should first attack 
the tigers, or go pig-sticking, or on a general shooting-expedition; and 
generally, if my recollection is correct, the vote was for going for the tigers. 
Occasionally while dubitating, a villager would come with tears to relate 
how his best milch cow had just been carried off; and such news at once 
decided the matter. 

But at other times we used to hear that the tigers had just been harassed 
by a native shikarry ; that no kill had been heard of lately ; that the ducks 
had been disturbed by some men with a gun ; or that no hogs could be 



10 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

marked in rideable ground. I think often of the way we were constantly 
disappointed and at times agreeably surprised^ on the days when ill luck 
prevailed or on those when every thing turned out well. Taking the good 
luck with the had^ those periods of camp and sport, for two or three days at a 
time^ may be reckoned as some of the most enjoyable in one's lifetime. 

Besides working up the country far and near in somewhat of the manner I 
have pointed out^ when it is necessary to act solely on your own account you 
will^ of course, try and gain all knowledge and shikar information you can 
from seniors who are successful sportsmen themselves ; and^ if possible^ you 
will try to be stationed for your first appointment at some good place where 
there is an experienced shikarry-judge or collector, noted for keenness and 
great success, and who would be likely to lead you in the flowery paths of 
-shikar which you will wish to follow through your Indian life. The stations 
which are most sought after in Eastern Bengal are not, as a rule, the best for 
sport; the charms of good society, the salubrity of the place, and the 
character of the doctor — stations with good racecourses, racket-courts, and 
billiard-rooms, and where balls and dinner-parties are common — are most in 
request. Probably you will find it easy to get appointed at first, at any rate, 
to zillahs where hard work tempered with good shikar is more to be thought of 
than large parties and well-dressed assemblies after sunset. In my own case I 
owed much of my sport to the fact that I always applied for or volunteered 
for places where the sport was best and the usual desired advantages least 
promising. When first I went to Noakholly, a friend wrote to me saying that, 
after long inquiry, he had at last met a man who knew a little about the 
place, and described it as a beastly mudbank on the Megna river, where there 
was no society and no doctor, where they made bad salt, and stuck pigs and 
shot tigers ; and bis description at that time was not bad. Since then the 
small district has been made into a zillah. I believe there is now a judge 
there, and a collector and a doctor. I know the Government salt manufacture 
has disappeared, and I suspect that with it the best of the hunting and sporting 
must have disappeared too. 

But there must still be splendid snipe-shooting, tigers must stiU be found 
in the Megna churs, Siddhee and other islands cannot have been denuded of 
hogs, the velvety grassland must still be the best galloping-ground in India, 
and jungle-fowl must still abound in the hills between ComiUa and the Fenny 
river. I wonder if these places are aU worked up for shikar, or any of them, 
as they were in my day! If they are not, if they have long been left 
unhunted, the better chance for you if you should be appointed to Tippera, 
Noakholly, or Chittagong. If I am still alive I shall be delighted to give you 
such information as memory and a diary can supply. 



SNIP&8H00TINQ. H 



Lbttbr No. 5.—SNIPE'SH00TING. 

Sport with Snipe. Kinds of Snipe. Seasons for the Sport — Sport not likely to fail, though 
cultivation may increase.— Time of day for Snipe-shooting.— Avoid strong dzink. — 
Change your suit as soon as shooting ends. — Large bags of Snipe in Tippera. — ^Bad fever 
from Snipe-flhooting. — September sport. — Snipe-ground of Noakholly. — Nice uncultivated 
spots for sport 

The first sport which will be certain to be offered to 70a will be snipe- 
shooting; and very splendid sport is Bengal snipe-shooting when good. 
You can enjoy it from almost any station with less trouble and expense than 
any other kind of sport I know. 

There are four kinds of snipe in Eastern Bengal : — 

1st. The common English or f antail snipe {Scohpax gallinago) . 

2nd. The pintail snipe {Scolopax stenura or sihenura), 

3rd. The jack snipe {Scolopax gallinuta) . 

4th. The painted snipe {Rhyncfuea bengalensU) . 

The pintail snipe differs from the fantail or common snipe chiefly in 
having six or more peculiar narrow feathers on each side of its tail ; it is 
darker too under the wings^ and has a shorter and slightly different bill. I 
am not going to enter into a detailed discussion as to the differences of these 
two species. Before the days of Jerdon and Hume hardly one sportsman in 
ten knew that there was any difference at all^ and^ so far as sport is concerned^ 
you need not trouble yourself about the matter. Just shoot them both and 
cook them both in exactly the same way. In these pages the word '' snipe '* 
may be understood to apply to both birds. 

There are several kinds of snipe mentioned in Indian ornithology, and I 
always studied ornithology since I was a boy. But I never had the luck to 
meet with any kinds but those just mentioned, neither in England nor Bengal, 
Bombay, or Ceylon ; and I never met with any one in Eastern Bengal who 
had killed or seen one, except Jerdon and Hume. I never saw one in the 
flesh or out of a collection. 

You may shoot snipe nearly all the year round, and certainly during all 
the season that it is healthy for you to go into the marshes or swamps. I 
have observed a snipe at Tippera as early as the 4th August. Tom Pitts, the 
well-known huntsman of the Calcutta liouuds, said he always managed to 
get some near Dum Dum or Cox^s Bungalow on the 12th August. I have 
twice made good bags in the first week of May, both times in borudhan- 
khets. I cannot remember ever having seen a snipe in India in June or 
July, though I often spent many days in those months in boats in jheels 
where there was no reason why the birds should not have nested. The 
painted snipe breeds in Eastern Bengal. 

I believe snipe-shooting will last, and be as good as ever, as long as the 



12 SPORT IN EASTEKN BENGAL. 

British dominion extends over Bengal^ and most probably very much longer. 
The bird does no harm. It is suited to the nature of the soil and country of 
Eastern Bengal^ which can never be thoroughly drained*. The bird is hard 
to hit flying and difficult to find sitting. Native shikarries do not find it pay 
to shoot snipe ; there is little flesh on its bones— far better to kill a large 
heron or shelbreaking ibis for the Mahommedan family than the poor little 
squeaking Ishnaip. It pays well to net them if there are sahibs to buy 
them ; but netting will not exterminate these delicious game birds. 

Ordinarily the best months for shooting are September and October, but the 
character of the sport and the way of working it alters with the seasons. 
From the 15th November to the 15th February, in the lovely cold season of 
Bengal, you should shoot them in the middle of the day. They sleep in the 
open fields all the day at that season. The sun is generally shining and the 
wind gentle. The birds rise close and fly quietly. The absence of heat 
allows you to walk freshly and hold straight for hours. If your official 
duties allow you to do so, shoot your winter snipe between 10 a.m. and 
4.30 P.M. But beware of the climate and its deadly chills. Beware of beer, 
brandy, and all strong drink, even under a winter's sun in a Bengal jheel ; 
change your wet clothes when shooting is over, on the spot, before you enter 
your buggy or mount your horse to return home. Ride or drive home warm 
and dry, as a rule, or you will not shoot snipe many winters through in 
Eastern Bengal. With due regard to clothing and temperance in liquor, I 
consider snipe-shooting a very healthy sport. I never was the worse for 
it but once, and then I lost the hair from my head ; I nearly died. It came 
about in this wise : — ^The snipe-shooting at Tippera was at its very best, and I 
had one keen companion, my superior, the magistrate, who was as hard as 
nails, but temperate and careful too. The bags that we used to make ! We 
got our powder, Curtis and Harvey's best, in barrels, and our wadding and 
caps (for it was in the days of muzzle-loaders) wholesale from England. We 
often killed above eighty couple of snipe between daybreak and 10.30 a.m. 
Once we killed eighty-six couple — at least we brought home eighty -six couple. 
How many couple the magistrate left in the rice I cannot say. He cried to 
me, " What are you stopping for ? " I said, '' I have fourteen birds down, 
and shall not shoot on till I pick up at least seven.'' " Oh, never stop 1 let 
the chuprasseis pick them up ; go on, go on I " So he went on, and I picked 
up most of my birds. But on one of these days we had agreed to shoot up to 
a certain spot, where our horses were to meet us and take us about eight miles 
to the station. We had not remembered that there was a deep nullah at the 
side of the road where the horses stood, and which we had to cross. Official 
business was heavy ; we had no time to go round, so we swam the nullah, and 

* Cultiyation and agriculture, which banish most kinds of game, agree with snipe and 
snipe-shooting; very often the best rice-lands are the best snipe-shooting pkces in the 
district. 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. 13 

had to ride home in wet clothes. After bathing and breakfast^ I had to walk 
half a mile to office. It rained, and I got damp. At 5.30 p.m. I left office, 
saying to the magistrate that I felt chilly. He recommended a brisk walk, so 
off we set and walked to Mynamutty, four and a half miles distant. As we 
turned homeward it began to rain again, and I got wet a third time. This 
brought on a bad fever. An ignorant doctor mismanaged me, and I very 
nearly joined the majority. 

In September, when it is very hot and damp, it is not only much more 
healthy to shoot snipe in the early morning or in the afternoon than to toil 
through the hottest part of the day, but you shoot better and make better 
bags. I remember, many years ago, before railways were introduced, a party 
of three of us went to have a day's buipe-shooting in Bhaga bheel — now so 
easily got at from Calcutta, but then it took us a long buggy-drive from Cal- 
cutta and steady rowing in a boat all night and far into the day before we 
reached the spot. We started to shoot after breakfast, having arranged that 
a good tiffin should be brought to us at the furthest point we were to shoot 
to. Though birds were plentiful, the walking was laborious; constantly 
sinking to the knee, an effort was required to bring the foot out. Occasionally 
one sunk in with both feet to above the knees ; then one had to be dragged 
out by two bearers. The sun was fearfully hot in a cloudless sky; there was 
no wind. We reached the spot for luncheon long before luncheon reached 
us, and we sat under the palm trees very thirsty. One of my companions 
was a fair shot, the other decidedly a bad one. We had bagged forty-seven 
couple of snipe. 

The lunch was good, and the cool pale ale delicious. Pale ale never agreed 
with me ; but I drank nearly a bottle, and my friends more than a bottle each. 
On the way back birds were more numerous than before and the firing was 
hot ; but our bag at the end was some two or three couple short of sixty 
brace, and, moreover, we were very tired and done up ; and I am convinced 
that, could we have timed the sport, for the same number of hours beginning 
at 6 A.M., and omitting the beer, we should have doubled the bag; and after 
reaching our boats we could have bathed and enjoyed a cool lunch and a siesta 
afterwards, and been far more comfortable than we were according to the 
arrangements we followed. 

The ground in which snipe are found, as a rule, in the early months of the 
sport is such as supplies abundance of food, and must be tolerably soft and 
not deeply covered with water. The young green rice-crop is a favourite 
resort, and in many places you shoot in nothing else ; but fallow or unculti- 
vated ground, with short grass and weeds in it, with about one inch of water, 
and mud that lets your foot into it for about two inches more, is a still better 
place to find snipe in. Such spots are often interspersed among the rice- 
khets, especially as you go far towards the east from Calcutta. 

In some zillahs — NoakhoUy, for instance — ^you find large grassy plains on 



14 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

the banks of large rivers, which have not been cultivated, but have short 
grass on them slightly impregnated with salt. The shooting on these chars 
in October in calm weather is delightful ; birds are plentiful, and walking 
easy. I used to enjoy the snipe-shooting about Hingootea and Shook churs 
in the Doorga-Poojah holidays more than in any other place. But it was 
dependent on weather. Birds were often exceedingly wild and unapproach- 
able. After two days of settled weather, on ground only just covered with 
water and soft, snipe were tame and shooting easy ; but these churs were 
liable to be inundated ; and if the water got two or three inches deeper, or if 
the wind blew tempestuously, the birds would leave the entire neighbourhood 
of such lands till the ground became fit again for them. On these plains 
every sort of wading-bird was generally to be found. I observed that these 
were much less affected by the weather; they acconmiodated themselves to 
circumstances, but the snipe went elsewhere. 

In some places there are peculiar swamps which never seem to be long under 
deep water, and which never get dry, even in April and May, and remain 
always uncultivated. In such places you may find snipe abundant from the 
middle of August to the middle of April. When you come to know of such 
nice spots, mark them well in your memory ; do not tell everybody else about 
them, or you will find them poached. A good shikarry often finds out a 
number of such places not known to the generality of sportsmen. 



Letter No. 6. 

Ghround varies with inundations and tides. — ^Place veiy near Calcutta only suitable for 
Snipe after spring^tides. — Good place towards the Soonderbunds. Rice-fields. — 
Renuurks as to shooting in the morning or eyening, or in the middle of the day. — A. 
hot afternoon. 

Much of the low-lying country in Eastern Bengal is subject to overflow by 
the spring-tides in September and October. The snipe-shooting in many 
places is affected by this petty inundation. There was a place very close to 
Calcutta — I dare say it is built over now — ^where, over a small area, a very nice 
afternoon's sport could be got at. the right time. An officer in Fort William 
was constantly asking me to show him some shooting, and promised not to 
disclose the place ; so I took him there, and we had pleasant sport for about 
two hours, shooting fourteen couple. His messmates, however, persuaded him 
to take them to the same place, and they found nothing. Shortly afterwards 
he got me to take him out again, and I took him to the same place, and we 
had fair sport. He then told me that it was very odd, but he had been here 



BEST TIME FOR SNIPE-SHOOTING. 16 

in the meantime and found no snipe. I suggested that perhaps some other 
persons also had been poaching on my preserves. The real fact was that the 
ground was only fit for snipe on the third and fourth days after the high spring* 
tide in the river ; on other days it was too dry. 

There was another place where I used to get charming sport towards the 
Soonderbunds. I never knew its name. After dinner I used to drive to my 
boat^ and sleep in it during the journey. Next morning I was at the spot. 
It was a large muddy plain^ through which ran several small tidal ditches. 
During low water I could wander about the plain and shoot snipe, and at 
times plover^ in the short herbage and in a short-growing bush with a blue 
flower — ^the leaf resembled holly and was prickly^ and the flower was like a 
periwinkle. I believe the name of the plant was Justicia spinosa. When the 
tide came in the snipe left the lowland and came in numbers to the few high 
island-like spots which remained uncovered with water^ and here I used to 
wait for them and shoot numbers. After the river fell^ in the cold season^ the 
place became too dry. 

The generality of early snipe-shooting is got in rice-fields and in the 
uncultivated spots interspersed among them, and in places where^ although 
the water may be a foot deep and more, yet the matted long rice allows the 
snipe to wade and settle on the crop without getting into too deep water. 
The first plunge into this deep water^ about sunrise, near November^ often 
startles one with its coldness. 

I have said that^ in quite the cold season^ you should shoot snipe in the 
middle of the day. It is quite different, however^ in September and March, 
when the sun has great power, and too much fatigue and exposure in the 
marshes may induce fever. It is generally allowed that at these seasons you 
should shoot either in the morning or in the afternoon. There has been much 
dispute as to whether it is best to shoot in the morning or the afternoon. 
Hume says that it is a sad mistake, and spoils sporty to go out in the morning. 
I entirely disagree with him. His argument is that the birds are then wild^ 
get up in whisps, and may leave the place altogether. Other authorities agree 
with him. As to the shooting after 10.80 a.m.^ I put that out of the question. 
You certainly find the birds easier to shoot ; and if your official duties wiU 
allow you to spare the time, by all means shoot in the middle of the day^ if it 
is not too hot for health. But where the choice lies between a few hours in 
the early morning and a few before dark^ I very greatly prefer to go out early. 
The birds have probably been feeding all night and like their feeding-ground, 
and have not been disturbed. Tou find them easily in the early mornings 
when some are generally fiying about^ and direct you where to begin at once. 
There are no cattle tethered on those nice uncultivated spots which the snipe 
love most^ and no boys to shout at the trespassing cows and frighten away the 
snipe. Birds lie closer and you miss fewer shots as the sun gets higher. If 
you get into a place where the snipe are very numerous, you can shoot it out. 



1 



16 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Your time is your own ; you have commenced no case which must be finished 
— no mooktear insists on bothering you and detaining you in ofSce. But if 
you arrange to shoot in the afternoon, you will often find yourself hampered 
as to time in office, and therefore late on the snipe-ground. The birds have 
been hidden during the heat of the day, and it may be long before you hit 
them off. Boys will be tending tethered and untethered cattle, and shouting 
and playing on the uncultivated spots where you ought to have found most 
birds. Snipe get wilder as the sun goes lower, and often, just as you get right 
into the thick of them, darkness comes on. However, you can easily try both 
plans and take your choice. 

I was not always so careful as to the hours for shooting. Once I went with 
a companion to shoot at the foot of the Mynamutty hills in Tippera, and a 
place that absolutely swarmed with snipe, but no air reached it. The sun 
poured fiercely down in the second week of September, and the thick sticky 
mud formed as difficult stuff to walk through as I ever shot in. The heat was 
terribly oppressive. It was in the days of muzzle-loaders, and we each had 
two. After ten minutes' or a quarter of an hour's iusillade, the guns got so 
hot that we were afraid to put powder into them ; so we handed them over to 
the beaters, and struggled to the shade of the village palm trees. The village 
was full of ripe pine-apples, costing about a penny each, so we ate pine-apples 
and then went at the snipe again; and this we continued to do till we were 
exhausted by the hard walking and heat. We killed a great number of birds, 
but my companion caught a very bad fever. I often afterwards shot over 
this place on cool mornings with no bad result. After early November you 
must seek snipe in other places than the cultivated rice-fields ; these dry up, 
and snipe revisit them no more till next season. You will now find them 
most plentiful on the borders of the water in the centre of jheels. K you 
know of quiet undisturbed jheels, the outer circle of which is high grass, such 
as should hold hog and hog-deer and partridges, with an inner circle of herbage 
growing in very shallow water, and with a centre of lotus-covered deep water, 
there you will probably find teal and ducks among the lotuses and snipe all 
round the water's edge. But sometimes these places are deserted at midday. 
I have seen the snipe coming in numbers before sunset, and shot them in 
early morning, and found that they had all gone by 10 a.m. At such times 
I have often found them among the stumps of burnt grass and in the driest 
ground. I believe, too, that great quantities of snipe retire to the heavy 
forest jungles for shade and quiet during the heat of the day. 



LOCALITIES FOR SNIPE. 17 



Letter No. 7. 

Snipe in the spring : in Borudhan : in deep water covered with floating weed, from boata or 
canoes. — Shoot in the morning from east to west, in the afternoon from west to east. — 
Charges of powder and shot. — Clothes for Bengal Snipe-shooting. Liquor tu be drunk. 
— Many Snipe caught by Shikarries, and kept alive till sold, but not equal to Snipe 
which have been shot. — Diflerent ways of cooking Snipe. — Jack Snipe. — Painted Snipe, 
I propose to vary details in these letters by writing sometimes of Bird-shooting and 
sometimes of Tiger, and then by introducing Hog-hunting before returning to Tigers, 
and 80 on. 

In March and April snipe resort to the borders of large tanks and ponds, and 
are very tame and easily shot there. In the station of Comilla, in Tippera, 
at the commencement of the hot weather, there were always snipe round tho 
beautiful tanks with which that pleasant place abounds. We looked on them 
as pets, and never shot at them. 

In many parts of Bengal a crop of rice, known as borudhan, is grown, 
which is planted out in lands that only begin to get dry in February and 
March, and which, for most part of the year, are under deep water. When 
the green crop is about ten inches high, and the mud soft and scarcely covered 
with water, snipe may be found in such places in numbers, and ducks and all 
sorts of waders also. I have constantly made large bags in these borudhan- 
khets late in the season, when I knew of no other place scarcely where the 
bird could be found abundantly. 

In some extensive bheels, where deep water is to be found all the year round, 
there is a floating weed which covers large patches of water, and in March pos- 
sesses a great attraction for snipe. I suppose they find plentiful enticing food 
in the shape of small worms or insects. Most excellent shooting is to be got 
when you come across a bheel of this kind. My modus operandi in the Narail 
subdivision of Jessore was as follows : — 

I got two tal-tree canoes, as no other boats were to be found in these bheels, 
and fastened them together with bamboos, and made myself as comfortable as 
I coidd, sitting with one leg in each canoe. One is obliged to tie two canoes 
together, as it is impossible to move from the exact perpendicular in a single 
canoe without upsetting it. Next I got two little boys out of the fishing- 
village — little creatures who were almost amphibious, and equally happy in 
the water or in a boat. One boatman with a long pole came in my double 
vessel, and two attendants accompanied in separate canoes. When we came 
to the right sort of patch of floating weed, I went to the right side of it, and 
the boys, on their hands and knees, struggling and swimming, crawled over 
it, putting up snipe in swarms. The birds only flew to other similar patches, 
and the sport was most brilliant and attended with no fatigue. I always made 
good bags j but I missed many shots, as it is difficult to shoot in a sitting 
posture in such canoes, and you can only fire successfully to the left front. 

c 



18 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

It was like shooting on elephants from the guddy when you cannot obtain a 
howdah. I believe this kind of snipe-shooting is to be got in the early hot 
season in some of the Sylhet bheels and in a few other places. I never met 
with it except in a few bheels between Jessore and Furreedpore. Had I been 
able to visit such places for several seasons I should certainly have built a flat- 
bottomed boat for the purpose^ or have had some boat on which one could 
stand and turn taken to the bheel. Few men of my acquaintance seem to 
have met with this peculiarly nice kind of snipe-shooting. The snipe could 
not be got up except by the boys. When shot^ the men behind picked up 
the birds^ for doing which a landing-net was most useful. 

In shooting snipe in the morning or afternoon^ you should always arrange 
your beat so as to avoid having the sun in your eyes. In the mornings begin 
at the eastern verge of your ground and shoot to the westward ; in the after- 
noon you should do exactly the reverse. A pair of spectacles with plain but 
slightly tinted glasses will enable you to shoot snipe even when they fly 
straight towards the sun. In great glare^ tinted spectacles afford wonderful 
relief to the eye and brain. Coming home from tiger-shooting in March, I 
have put them on and felt much refreshed^ and as if the sun had retired behind 
a cloud. 

I do not consider snipe hard to shoot. There is a knack in it which^ if you 
are naturally a fair shot, you will soon catch. Practice is the great thing, and 
with much practice probably you will find the shooting quite easy. I have 
known very many men in India who could shoot snipe well, but who were 
inferior shots at other game. I look on a black partridge as one of the easiest 
birds to shoot, but I have seen men miss them disgracefully ; and as for jungle- 
fowl in the Tippera hill-jungles, I have known men who thought themselves 
fair snipe-shots fire aU day and never bag a single jungle-cock. Sportsmen 
have their own ideas as to charges of powder and sizes of shot. I always shot, 
for general purposes, with three and a quarter drams of powder and one ounce 
and one eighth of No. 8 shot for breech-loaders. If I went out solely for 
snipe I reduced the charge to three drams of powder and an ounce of shot, or 
a little less. I did not find small charges answer. 

But Hume recommends the following plan : — '' Put one drachm of powder 
in the cartridge, and ram lightly down a thin wad ; then fill the cartridge with 
clean dry sawdust, tightly rammed in with a thin cardboard wad. On this 
place half an ounce of No. 10 or dust shot. Put in the usual cardboard wad, 
and close the cartridge in the usual manner. Up to thirty or forty yards they 
will kill snipe and quail as well as full cartridges.^' I did not know of this plan 
when in India ; but I tried it with No. 8 shot at larks in Northamptonshire 
in snow-time, and did not like it at all. In India I experimented with small 
charges in cartridges, and did not find it answer to reduce charges below two 
and a half drams of powder and seven eighths of shot ; and, practically, I 
used the charges first mentioned above. I never used shot less than No. 8* 



CLOTHES ETC. FOR SNIPRSHOOTING. 19 

Snipe often are wild^ and reqaire to be shot at longish distances ; and No. 8 
will knock over a teal if within fair distance. 

For snipe-shooting you should wear ordinary English laoe-boots ; a gaiter 
of some light cloth material^ not leather; trousers loose above and tight below 
the knee^ buttoning above the ankle, and made of American cotton cloth, called 
in Bengalee '' marking'' kupra. The jacket should be of the same material^ 
reaching a little below the hips, fitting loosely, with at least four pockets. 
You should wear a light banian under a cotton shirt. Your hat must be a 
'' solah topee,'' and it should have a curtain behind to protect the back of the 
neck. Some people recommend flannel clothes, but these shrink and tear and 
are useless for hard shooting. When shooting is over, you should instantly take 
off all your wet and soaking garments, and put on a fresh undersuit and blue or 
white flannel trousers and jacket to go home in. If it is windy, in spite of the 
heat you will find an overcoat a good thing after having been bathed in per- 
spiration for hours. Nearly all the sportsmen of my acquaintance adhered to 
the above rules for the most part. Some men also think it right to wear a 
native cummerbund, or one made of tusser silk^ round the waist. A coolie 
or servant with a light wicker stool {" morah ") on his head makes a convenient 
arrangement. The inverted morah holds your dry clothes and spare ammuni- 
tion, and affords a dry seat when you want to sit down or change your clothes. 

Snipe-shooting is thirsty work, and few men can walk in a soft muddy jheel 
for long without requiring something to drink. The less you drink the 
better ; but avoid spirits, and strong spirits and water, wine and beer. I 
trained myself, though by no means a teetotaller, to drink pure water ; this 
was carried for me in two stone bottles, inserted in a case made with a padding 
of cotton-wool, and carried on a bearer's shoulder by a strap ; the wadded 
cover was always wetted, and thus the water kept cool. I stuck to this from 
1850 to the end of my Indian experiences. Some men take tea, and a friend 
of mine used always to have his tea carried in the sunshine ''to keep it warm." 
Some men like weak cocoa, slightly sweetened, and it is refreshing. Some 
take coffee, very many weak brandy and water, or brandy and soda. My 
advice is, avoid brandy and beer before sundown; after sundown a deep 
draught of pale ale is truly delicious. I persuaded my assistants when pig- 
sticking or shooting at Noakholly to abstain from anything strong till sport 
was over. As we approached the camp, the khitmutgar, who was on the 
look out, used to meet us with a large tankard of the foaming amber liquid, 
and the young chaps christened it " Love's young dream." After the day is 
over the best drink is light claret, and if you are very thirsty and much 
exhausted you had better mingle water with your claret. All the successful 
healthy sportsmen I knew in India were exceedingly temperate on shikar 
expeditions ; and many and many a friend of mine suffered from free drinking 
of beer and spirits after exposure to the sun or during it. 

Near Calcutta, especially on the Howrah side of the river, immense 

c2 



20 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

quantities of snipe are caught by shikarries in nets for sale in the bazaar. 
These men operate from sunset to sunrise. The birds have their eyelids 
generally sewn up and are kept alive and starving till bought ; this pre- 
serves them from getting rotten^ but spoils them for the table. Caught snipe 
cannot be compared with snipe freshly shot. These shikarries look on 
these snipe-grounds as their private property, and my own shikarry, who 
was sent by me to report on these jheels^ was twice assaulted. Of course 
they dared not interfere with a Emropean with a loaded gun in his hand, but 
some Bengalee epithets, very far from polite or decent, were constantly 
hissed at me. 

In some places tremendous bags can be made. The best zillahs, as £Eir as 
I was concerned, for sport were Tippera and Noakholly. Two of us often 
topped the eighty couple, and I have nearly every season, when in good 
ground, shot above fifty couple to my own gun in about four hours. We 
used to consider twelve couple to a gun as an average fair sport, and any less 
number poor sport. 

When you come home with your snipe-sticks filled, and two or three 
birds in every loop, after sending presents to all friends in the station, you 
ask yourself what to do with the surplus. In addition to the ordinary snipe, 
let me tell you that snipe-pie, trail-toast, trail-omelette, and potted snipe 
are all delicious^ and that Hindoo bearers will eat snipe ; and if after shooting 
a certain number you allow your Mahommedan attendants to cut the throats 
of the others you may shoot, all the Mussulman servants will cook and eat 
them joyfully. 

I have written a long screed on this little bird, but after all my advice 
may be condensed into very few words : — make your shikarry find out and 
report where snipe mo^t abound ; hold straight ; be temperate ; change your 
clothes as soon as you cease to shoot. Then I hope you may healthily enjoy 
this fine sport for a quarter of a century. 

The jack snipe is a delicious little bird, thinly scattered over Bengal : you 
will often meet with him ; ruthlessly slay and eat him. He is irregular in 
his habits, and I can give little information about him. 

The painted snipe is useless both for sport and for the table. Indeed he 
is not a snipe at all. A few are shot just to make up a bag, or because the 
females are handsome. The male is a plainish bird, but the female is richly 
coloured. Most new-comers regard the brightest-coloured bird as the male ; I 
found out that it was not so before the writings of Jerdon and Hume were 
published. My cook's mate was one day playing with an egg, and I asked 
him where he got it, and he said he got it inside a painted snipe which I had 
shot that morning : presently I recollected that I had only shot two painters, 
and that I thought they were males. The boy stuck to his story ; so I went 
out again in the afternoon and shot several of both sexes, and thus ascer- 
tained that the richly coloured and largest bird was the female^ and the plain 



SPORT ON QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY. 21 

bird the male. There are other birds known to ornithologists which are 
similarly coloured as to the sexes. 

As latterly my letters have been rather dry, inasmuch as they contained 
little else than instruction and information for your guidance, in my next I 
will give an account of a good day's sport from the howdah ; and after that 
digression I will enter into the discussion of the grand sport of hog-hunting, 
to which I devoted most of my spare time in India, and which, when it was 
to be got, threw all other sports into the shade, tiger-shooting not by any 
means excepted. 



Letter No 8.— GOOD SPORT ON QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY. 

A gfood day's sport on the Queen's Birthday. — ^A bheel at the foot of the Shooshung Hills. — 
Dilficulti<Mi of reaching an out-of-the-way place. — The Rajah of Shooshung. — The 
weather. — Shikarry's report. — Rajah shoots a noisy Hog. — Buffalo-shooting. 

To the north of the station of Mymensing, some thirty miles as the crow 
flies, and at the base of the Shooshung Hills, is a pergunnah known as 
Nazirpore bheel. This I knew to be one of the very best places for shikar 
in the district, if hunted up late in the season, just before the early rains set 
in. From June to February it was generally too wet and too thickly covered 
with green grass and dense jungle for sport. Here for half a year all the 
zemindars of the zillah used to turn out their elephants loose to feed day 
and night on the wet " dull grass.^' A few weeks in these bheels made an 
elephant fat and round. I had heard a great deal about the place from my 
mahouts, and had long desired to try it. 

But the place was difficult of access and bad for camping at ; no hath 
(market) near for the men ; there was no road to it, and three very awkward 
rivers had to be crossed, aud this could only be done by previous arrange- 
ments for boats, as there were no regular ferries. For these reasons the 
place had not been visited by any sahibs for many years. I at last arranged 
to have a day there on that universal holiday, the 24th May. None of the 
other residents at the station could accompany me, so I went alone. I closed 
my office at 1 p.m. on the day before the Queen's birthday, and started on 
horseback from the cutcherry door. I had laid a dawk of five riding horses, 
and had marked the villages and crossings of the rivers from the Oovem- 
ment maps, and rode with compass in my pocket and note-book to record 
bearings. 

Budderuddeen Shikarry had gone ahead nearly a week before. My 
lightest camping arrangement of tent and pals for servants, the howdah and 



22 SPORT IN EASTERN BENQAL. 

gnus well protected with waterproof coverings^ were sent on two days before^ 
on nine elephants ; no bullock-carts could have been used. 

The Rajah of Shooshung was to meet me on the morning of the 24th May^ 
at my camp^ and to bring two elephants with him. 

This Rajah was the representative of a once powerful Hindoo family, which 
had gradually become impoverished through family quarrels and the pecula- 
tions of underlings, managers, naibs, and such-like retainers, who, though 
at first poor, gradually possessed themselves, bit by bit, of the landed pro- 
perty, and eventuaUy became owners of the estate of the family, in connection 
with which they had started in life in positions little better than those of 
slaves. The Rajah was a young man of good reputation, of exceedingly 
prepossessing manners, and had long been friendly with me. 

The weather had been hot and windy for some days, and it was evident 
that the rains were about to burst forth. It seemed just a chance if I should 
not be stopped by deluges from the clouds and swollen rivers. However luck 
stood kindly by me on this occasion, and I arrived at camp before sunset. 
A most lovely wild sunset, such as is only to be seen in a hilly country 
when grand masses of dark clouds are accumulating in the western sky. 

The first thing to be done was to dine, and the second to hear Budderud- 
deen's report. He gave a glowing account of the place as a sporting-ground. 
There was an abundance of every possible kind of game. Traces of tigers 
in every direction. At the same time he had failed positively to harbour a 
tiger, and could tell of no fresh kill. The tigers fed as much on deer, 
hogs, and buffaloes, as on tame cattle belonging to the villagers, and there 
was the usual dislike which cowherds have of telling tales on tigers, whose 
relatives would retaliate by killing their cattle. Footmarks of tigers I should 
find by each muddy nullah. Deer of all kinds were abundant. Bears were 
said to be in the rosebush jungles. There was a herd of nine cow buffaloes 
and one very fine bull to the westward. The heavy grass-jungle was well 
burnt, and there was plenty of grass about two feet high. Several large 
pools with waterfowl and wading birds, and many patches of dense tree- 
jungle, mostly thorny and very hard to beat. The bheel lay at the foot of 
the hills, which were covered with forest, into which, if an animal retreated, 
pursuit would be futile. Out of this forest in the early morning came deer, 
peafowl and jungle-fowl. After due consideration of all this news I decided 
to start as early as possible next morning, and to go westward, the chief 
reason for this probably being that the early sun would not be in our 
eyes. 

The morning was fine though threatening ; I made an early start, and was 
joined soon by the Rajah. The first excitement was caused by my mahout 
Sowdaugor, who jumped off my elephant, and captured a large and beautiful 
specimen of that dangerous viper, Daboia RttsselUi^ the '^ tic polonga *' of 
Ceylon. I will not touch on Sowdaugor^s foolish mania for catchinsr snakes 



BUFFALO-HUNTING. 28 

now, bnt merely remark that I regarded it as a good omen, a sunilar capture of 
a dangerous snake haying before this occurred at the beginning of a lucky day. 

We beat some nice low grass ; there were a few black partridges and some 
khyah partridges, generally called by sportsmen here '^chickore/' Hares and 
hog-deer were running about. I spent no time with these, but got to a nice 
spot near some water that looked likely. Near this was an unbeatable patch 
of tree-jungle, thick and extensive enough for tigers and sambhur, here 
called '^gous/^and surrounded with splendid cover. This, however, only yielded 
hogs. The Rajah shot a very large boar, which made a great squealing 
before it died. This of course was painful to my feelings as a pig-sticker, but 
the Rajah said he shot it for food for his hiUmen, and that no sahibs ever 
came pig-sticking about this pergunnah. 

About this time I got news that the herd of buffaloes were all lying in 
some mud and grass not far off, and I went northward to get between them 
and the forest, which was about two miles off. I got fairly near them, when 
they rose and went off at speed. I managed to hit a cow hard with the 
Daw-Jacob rifle. My battery this day consisted of three smooth-bores, all 12- 
bores, and this rifle, which, though not of very large bore, carried a peculiar 
bullet about two ounces in weight ; it had a blunt conical point, and then a 
belt of about one eighth of an inch, which was larger than the bore, and 
behind this belt the lead was like a cylinder, and grooved so as to admit of 
lubrication. This bullet became elongated as it passed through the barrel, 
and was such a deadly missile that I really believe that no animal which I 
ever fairly hit in eleven years with it ever escaped ; many a miss I made, 
but if I hit I think I invariably brought the animal to bag. 

I did not stop, however, with the cow, but pressed on, best pace, to try and 
get the bull, with his massive horns. For more than an hour I followed, 
but he always beat me. It is wonderful how fast buffaloes go through 
marshy ground. The herd lingered at times in the shelter of patches of 
heavy grass, and I plugged two more cows with Daw- Jacob. Eventually 
the bull and the other cows got into the forest, and I do not possess those 
magnificent horns. 



Lettbb No. 9. 

Day's sport continued. — Shoot a Swamp-Deer with remarkable horns. — ^Return to Oamp.— 
News brought of a Tiger. — Start again. — Arrangements for beating. — Txy the shouting 
tactics, and the Tiger bolts. Is killed. — Wet night in tents. — Wet ride back. — 
Remarks. 

Bt this time the Rajah was done up with the heat of a May sun and 
retired. Close to where the bull had entered the hill-forest was a detached 



24 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

piece of heavy tree-jungle, whicli I resolved to beat ; it held a fine buck gous- 
deer with good horns. I had the luck to wound him severely at the first 
shot and he fell before he could get clean out of the thickets, and a ball 
behind the ear put an end to him. It took long to hoist his huge carcase on 
to an elephant. I now retraced my way and went back to the wounded cow 
buffaloes, every one of which had been stopped by the wounds given in the 
chase of the bull, and I killed the three, their heads were cut off, and by this 
time the day had become exceedingly hot. 

I had not come all that way for buffaloes, for whose pursuit I cared little. 
There was nothing better, and I shot at partridges and hog-deer on the home- 
ward track ; suddenly out of some thatching-grass a deer sprung up. He 
seemed to me all horns ; I had never seen such a head. The first shot out of 
a smooth-bore smashed his hips and he was easily killed. It was a swamp- 
deer {Certms Duvaucellii), or Barah Singal\. The usual complement of points 
for a good deer of this species is twelve, but this deer had twenty points. 
The head was exhibited in London in 1872, and I give a Plate of it. I was 
much delighted at this, and reached the tents contented, and thought the 
day's work was over. 

I was superintending the lowering of the deer from the guddy, so that the 
horns might not be injured, and the howdah-ropes of my elephant were 
actually loosened, when some liillmen came rushing in stating that a tiger 
had just carried off the hog which the Rajah had killed in the early morning, 
and was eating it in that nice jungle I The howdah-ropes were tightened, the 
men were refreshed with milk, which was plentiful here, I took some coffee 
which had been got ready, and we were all off again in about as hot a sun 
as I ever shot in. 

When I got to the place I found that the tiger had left the hog and had 
been marked into that unbeatable patch of tree-jungle which I mentioned 
just before relating the death of the noisy boar. The carcase of the boar pre- 
sented an extraordinary sight; the tiger had torn large pieces of flesh right 
out of the hinder parts by main force, and the muscles were hanging like 
pieces of white tape ; each moulhf ul must have been nearly twice as big as a 
cricket-ball. I surveyed the uncompromising patch of jungle mournfully, 
and saw that it could not possibly be properly beaten, and that a knowing 
tiger might defy us if he chose to stick to cover. Many of the trees were 
thick and thorny, and it would have been foolish to have taken a howdah 
elephant inside. Beyond this patch was a piece of really nice jungle, good 
cover and easy to beat, and besides this there was nothing else but open 
plain for a tiger to betake himself to ; so I made up my mind to try shouting 
tactics, which I had often found successful before. A fresh-found tiger may 
often be made to bolt by shouting once, but he will not do it a second time 
after he has found out the danger. So I put the line of nine elephants, that 
is seven of those which I had brought with me and two brought by the Rajah, 






REMARKABLE "H0RM5 OF SWAMP DEER. 






\ 



V- 



A FINE TIGER. 26 

iato order^ under the command of Budderuddeen and a very clever jemmadar 
of chuprassies, with one elephant outside each^ and five good beating 
elephants between them^ and directed them to do exactly as I had done when 

I beat out the tiger for the Earl of G d the season before, viz., to 

go as far into the jungle as they could in line, and then to shout and make 
the utmost possible row. I took up my station between the unbeatable patch 
of jungle and the nice beatable cover. I was on my favourite elephant, but 
took another to keep her company, as even the most staunch elephant is 
generally uneasy and unsteady if placed alone on an occasion like this. 

In due time the shouting commenced, and a most unearthly din was indeed 
made, and very soon a fine tiger bolted across the open space and gave me a 
nice shot, which, I am sorry to say, I missed disgracefully ; but the tiger had 
gone into the nice easily beaten jungle. 

There was no help for it. I blew the horn I always carry in the howdah, 
and the elephants all came to me. The jungle to be now beaten was in the 
form of a long isosceles triangle, the apex pointing to the open plain and the 
base running parallel to the thick tree-jungle from which the tiger had bolted* 
I felt certain that if I beat towards the apex the tiger would break back and 
I might lose him in the cover. So I decided to stand where I was, and have 
him beaten back towards his stronghold, thinking that I surely could not miss 
him again ; and thus the feat was carried out. Very soon I knew by the noise 
that he was viewed. He came well at me open-mouthed ; a well directed shot 
rolled him over almost within ten yards of me, a second bullet behind the ear 
killed him, and all was over. 

He was a very fine tiger, in the prime of life, and measured ten feet and 
one inch as he lay before we padded him. Of course I was delighted with 
the day's sport. 

I turned back to camp, and it was well into the afternoon. I had a great 
deal to do. First to skin the two big deer and the tiger and to see to their 
heads, and then to prepare for the coming storm. The thunder was growling, 
the clouds were, as the natives say, like soorma, or powdered antimony. Tent- 
ropes were fastened firmly to pegs bushed in the ground, a small rampart of 
earth nearly a foot high was dug and planted round the foot of the khunats of 
the tent to keep out the rain, guns were oiled, put in their cases and under a 
waterproof cover in the howdah, which was also put inside the crowded tent, 
and then to dinner. I will tell you what this consisted of : — Hotch-potch soup 
from a tin, partridge cutlets, steaks from the tenderest part of the big-horned 
deer, curried eggs and rice, pint of cool Giesler, and stewed apricots ended 
the repast (the latter delicacy got from travelling Afghans, and always kept 
in store as delicious and portable ; these apricots in a dried state are procur- 
able generally over all Bengal) ; a cup of cofi'ee followed, and orders were given 
for a start home at 3.30 a.m., if possible. The rains set in in stormy wrath. 
By 3.30 the tempest had begun. We were all on the alert. The khitmutgar 



28 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

gave me a large cup of coffee, two eggs boiled and mixed together with pepper 
and salt in a tumbler^ and some toast^ and I started on my wet ride as soon 
as I could see. It was a most drenching journey^ but the water in the rivers 
had not ris^n^ and I reached my house quite as soon as I expected. After a 
bath and breakfast I was in my office seat by 12.20 p.m.^ and got through a 
fair day's work by 6 p.m.^ when the elephants and servants began to appear 
all wet and wretched. 

Thus ended the trip. The day's sport I consider one of the best I ever had 
in my life. In addition to the egregious miss at the tiger^ I believe I made 
one other mistake. I ought to have tried again and have beaten that thick 
jungle again to the best of my ability, for I do not think the tiger I killed 
was the one which had been devouring the hog : when I cut open the body the 
stomach was empty ; now had it been the tiger which had just fed, I should 
have found the stomach full of pork ! 

Tigers very often are in company with one or two companions. The jungle 
was fit to hold several tigers, and might have had in it a rhinoceros ; they were 
not uncommon in this country. It probably held some gous-deer ; I had 
found one in the only heavy jungle tried that morning. Probably there were 
bears in it ; bears were more common hereabouts than in any place I knew. 
Though the jungle was generally unfit for a man in a howdah to enter, as 
thick branches might have torn off the howdah and caused accidents, yet it 
"^ight have been disturbed and shaken up and fired into, and possibly game 
might have been found. But on the whole it was a most glorious day's sport : 
the bag was one tiger, one splendid swamp-deer, one gous-deer, two hog-deer, 
three buffaloes, and some partridges. 



Letteb No. 10. 

Hog-hunting. — Hog-hunting compared with other sports, and considered only inferior to the 
best Fox-hunting. — The Bengal Wild Boar. Size. The largest seen by me. — ^Hogs of 
different Zillahs. — Various countries for hunting. — The Calcutta Tent Club. — ^Right 
number to ride a Hog. — Scarcity of competent Hog-hunters. — ^Indigo-planters. — ^Noak- 
holly « — How I arranged with the Zemindars and preserved the country for Hog- 
hunting. — How my preserves were invaded. How defended from future attack. 

Hoo-HUNTiNO, more familiarly called pig-sticking, ia the grandest sport you 
will get in Eastern Bengal. I say this with full knowledge that many men 
would ask, What about tiger-shooting? In my opinion I put good pig- 
sticking second only to fox-hunting with the best packs in the English 
midlands. I have hunted with nearly all the best fox-hounds in England and 
Scotland, with the stag-hounds on Exmoor, with the Queen's hounds, with 
numerous packs of harriers ; I have ridden wild buffaloes and wild cattle and 



HOG-HUNTING. 27 

hog-deer with a gnu in place of a spear; I have never stalked a Highland 
stag, nor killed gour, nor elephants, nor been in America ; bnt I have shot 
rhinoceros and five kinds of deer with smooth-bore and rifle. I have killed 
gronse in five Scotch counties, jungle-fowl in Tippera, snipe in India and 
Ceylon, peafowl, spurfowl, and many kinds of partridges, wild geese, and 
nearly all kinds of ducks, wild pigeons, and water-fowl ; and, after more than 
forty years' keen pursuit of all these sports, I unhesitatingly declare my choice 
for hog-hunting next to the be^t fox-hunting. 

There is a rapture and delight in the pace, which must be the best your 
horse can go ; an excitement in the struggle for first spear ; a satisfaction in 
the cotnbat with a plucky well-grown boar, only to be equalled by a fast forty 
minutes with a scent without a check, when well mounted and able to hold 
your own over the splendid pastures of Market Harborough and Melton. 

You will probably read a deal about tiger-shooting in these letters. A 
really good day with luck and fighting tigers is glorious sport I allow ; but 
how often do you get it f How many days of iminteresting toil are you not 
forced to undergo I How much disappointment and ill-luck before you secure 
your trophies I No, hog-hunting to me beats tiger-shooting hollow. 

The Bengal wild boar is found all over Eastern Bengal, but varies much in 
size and character in different zillahs. One of the largest I ever rode was 
just under thirty-eight inches high, properly measured. That is, a spear was 
stuck into the ground touching his withers, the fore leg was held straight out 
and another spear stuck into the ground at his heel, and the space between 
the two spear-shafts was about 37| inches *. My notes record the measure- 
ment of no larger hog. This one was killed on the 2nd of June, 1850, in the 
churs on the Moorshedabad side of the Ganges below Fubna. It was one of 
the hottest days that I went hog-hunting on. We had killed four fine hogs 
that morning, and one of the party came to me and said it was so hot that he 
could stay out no longer, but that in yonder grass was the very biggest boar 
that was ever seen, bigger than the biggest seen or killed at the famous pig- 
sticking party lately given by Mr. Torrens of the Bengal Civil Service, at 
which no less than sixty elephants belonging to the Nawab of Moorshedabad 
had been put into line. My horse was quite done, so I said if any one would 
lend me a horse I would kill this monster. A young indigo-planter said he 
would lend me a grey factory horse if I would be responsible ; I agreed and 
mounted. It was a nice horse, rather unmade, but the reins were very thin 
and hard and cut my hands, as he had a hard mouth and would not easily 
answer the rein. We beat the jungle and four fine hogs broke at once — 
among them the monster : in leaving the jungle he caught sight of one of the 
party and went straight at him. J . tried to spear him properly, but the hog 
knocked the spear into his face and nearly stunned him. J. came galloping 
entreating me to kill the hog who had blinded him. I soon got on terms 

* If a tape had been pressed close to the body, as is done by some measurers, this boar 
would have measured fully 42 inches. 



28 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL.* 

with the hog, and killed him in two charges, but the horse was so difficult to 
steer and manage that he got cut in the stifle. Both the planter and the 
horse got all right after medical treatment. 

When I reached the bungalow and told about the size of the hog which 
was being brought in on a cart, several bets were offered as to his height. 
Mr. Cockbum (of whom I have much to write, and who was my tutor in the 
science and the best pig-sticker I ever met) backed the tusks of the hog he 
had speared that morning ; other bets were that he was not as high as the 
table, and not higher than the table, not three feet high. I took all the 
bets ; but lost the one as to the tusks. Cockburn^s hog had splendid thick, 
long, and perfect tusks, mine had one tusk with the point broken. Generally 
an old hog has his tusks damaged, either by fighting, or some say broken on 
purpose, as a short, thick, sharp tusk is more effective than a long, thin, 
overgrown one. The hogs on the churs about Pubna were the largest chur- 
hogs I met. As a rule chur-hogs do not attain the height of village hogs, 
or those who have lived for many years in dense tree-jungles. 

The hogs of the NoakhoUy churs were rather low at the shoulders ; but 
they were the pluckiest and the best to fight and for pace. The old heavy 
ones ran about thirty-two to thirty-three inches at the withers. 

The village hogs, as we termed them, of Tippera, Central Bajshahye, 
Maldah, and Dinagepore were very large. I never saw one larger than the one 
I first recorded ; and I have been at the death of nearly a thousand, and should 
have noted a higher had I seen it dead. But I have heard of hogs forty 
inches high, and I have seen the skulls of hogs from Dinagepore and Rung- 
pore which were larger than any I ever saw killed. These heavy village 
monsters as a rule are cowardly and slow, hard to beat out of the ^' bdnt^^ and 
thorny jungles, and show little fight when tackled. But the Noakholly chur- 
hogs were always game to the last ; I never met a cowardly one. 

Hogs differ in their skulls ; some have proportionately large and some 
small heads, some are straight and some are slightly curved between the nose 
and forehead. I always considered a straight even contour the best. At 
one time I could have told nearly always from what country a hog came from 
his skull and the shape of his head. 

With trouble and expense you can obtain pig-sticking from most of the 
districts in Eastern Bengal. From Chittagong, Backergunge, Sylhet, and a 
few zillahs you would have to go to neighbouring districts to obtain the 
sport. An official cannot spare much time without taking leave. A Backer- 
gunge sportsman might easily join a Noakholly one in the finest country that 
was to be found in my time. A Sylhet officer would find it difficult to hunt 
beyond the confines of his own marshy water-covered zillah. In most 
districts, however, sport is obtainable either within the district itself or by 
the aid of railroads and good common roads suitable for hacking or driving 
buggies on. 



CALCUTTA TENT CLUB. 29 

Calcutta^ I should say^ is about the best place to enjoy hog-hunting from^ 
especially if you are a member of the Tent Club. If you should be stationed 
at or near Calcutta^ I would advise you to endeavour to become a member 
of that very agreeable institution. From the nature of the sport of hog- 
hunting, it is impossible that the meetings of a club should be open to a 
number of riders as are the meetings with packs of fox-hounds. The best 
number of men to ride a hog is two, or at most three ; one is sufficient ; at 
least half of my own hog-hunting at Noakholly was carried on without a 
companion. I could not get one. If there are six or more men, I will call 
them, as we did in the field, spears ; if more than five spears are of the party 
it is better, unless the parties can be separated by the jungle, to divide them, 
and to arrange that the first hog shall be ridden by two, three, or more 
spears, and that the others shall wait till a second hog breaks. It is quite 
certain that in a tolerably open country many spears to one hog interfere 
with each other, and that the sport is much spoilt. Often, indeed, some four 
or five spears rush madly after a middling hog and so allow the best hog in 
the jungle to make his escape, while his smaller friend is being ridden. It is 
difficult to make rules on the subject ; when made, as far as my experience 
goes, they are generally disregarded. But luckily, except from Calcutta and 
its neighbourhood, spears who are really well mounted, able to ride and kill a 
hog single-handed, and willing to join in a meeting are not very numerous. 
I cannot now name a district, except the twenty-four pergunnahs, in Eastern 
Bengal proper which could supply more than four really good spears since 
indigo-planting received its death-blow. 

When the alluvial shores of most of the smaller navigable streams in Kish- 
naghur, Moorshedabad, Rajshahye, Jessore, Furreedpore, Pubna, Mymensing, 
Dacca, and Tippera were green with indigo and the lovely doob-grass 
galloping-ground, and hospitable factories tenanted by keen intelligent 
English gentlemen in the prime of life were to be seen all over the country, 
hog-hunting parties were common everywhere in these districts ; but by the 
time I left India the action of the heads of the Civil Service had almost 
crushed out the chief of the indigo interest. The factories are to be seen in 
ruins all over Eastern Bengal. Hog-hunting lost most of its ardent followers 
in the mofussil, and the ryots of Lower Bengal many of their best protectors 
and employers. 

When I was a member of the Calcutta Tent Club, in the early days of Lord 
Dalhousie's reign, when railroads did not exist, the Tent Club confined its 
action to the south of Calcutta chiefly — ^to the plains of Budgebudge and 
Parbuttia, to Amptollah and Diamond Harbour, and such easily accessible 
places. But when the rail was established, then operations were extended to 
Kishnaghur and Goalundo on the Ganges ; and about the same time the Club 
visited the splendid hunting-grounds of the old salt-manufacturing district 
about Tumlook. Long after I left Calcutta I was present with the Tent 



80 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Club 843 a guest at all these places. There is no mofussil station that commands 
anything like the above area ; but still by the aid of rail and road^ horse- 
dawks and driving-dawks^ palkees and boats you can hunt over a very widely 
extended country^ if you are determined energetically to spare neither trouble 
nor expense, from most stations. 

NoakhoUy, on the east of the Megna, was the best place I was appointed 
to for hog-hunting. I elected to stop there solely on account of the splendid 
sport : hog-hunting first, then snipe and jungle-fowl and tiger-shooting. 
It was a station most heartily disliked by the Service generally. '^ A mud- 
bank on the Megna, where they made bad salt and stuck pigs/' such was its 
definition as given to me by a friend. There was no society to speak of. 
It was out of the way, difficult to get at and to leave. The river route to the 
station was most dangerous, and the land route very tedious and expensive. 
But I was very happy there for six years : the greater part of my spare time 
was spent in hog-hunting. 

When I first went to the district I found that in the best hunting-grounds 
of which I heard so much, the landlord, or rather landlady, a great Zemin- 
daree Ranee, paid a small army of shikarries to keep down the hogs. I at 
once sent for the Ranee's agent, a judicious and clever Hindoo, and explained 
to him that it was to the benefit of the district and his employer, and of all 
the inhabitants, that the Collector-Magistrate (that was myself) and the great 
landlords should be in good accord and pull well and pleasantly together. To 
this the Baboo obsequiously agreed. I then said that if I was to stay in this 
benighted district I must enjoy my favourite sport of pig-sticking to the 
utmost, and that he must at once remove all shikarries from the best hog- 
hunting ground. I would kill the hogs for nothing and he might employ his 
shikarries in the lands in the interior of the zillah where hogs abounded, but 
where the sport could not compare with that on the riverain alluvial chur- 
lands. By degrees I talked him over. The shikarries were removed. I was 
especially partial to the Baboo in the matter of revenue settlements ; I did 
the best I could for him, and he adhered to his bargain, nearly, not quite, to 
the end of my time. In building his cutcherry at Hingootea he made it in 
such a fashion that a few Europeans could use it as a hunting-box ; and as it 
was within an hour's ride of my headquarters, I did so use it for six years. 

In various ways I preserved the country and got up the sport. The finest 
island for hunting was Siddhee. The farm of Siddhee I obtained for a 
European gentleman, afterwards killed in the service of Grovernment by the 
mutineers. This gentleman preserved for me to such an extent that once I 
saw at least one himdred and fifty hogs of different sizes and sexes burst at 
one time from the end of a jhow-jungle. 

Once in the rains I paid a visit to my favourite Hingootea jungle, going 
by boat ; the country was then too wet for sport. To my horror I found 
several boats manned by Mughs, or trading-boatmen from the Arrakan coast. 



HIJNTING-GROUNBS PRESERVED. 81 

who had found ont my hest preserye and had slaughtered no less than fourteen 
breeding-sows^ whose bodies I saw. This was terrible, and of course it had to 
be stopped ; and I stopped it thus : — ^The left bank of the Megna river and the 
stream on that side are not safe at the spring-tide, when the huge Megna- 
river bores are apt to overwhelm the boats and drown the occupants. Several 
lives had lately been lost in such storms. I therefore, having then complete 
command of the police, issued orders forbidding any boats to use the north- 
eastern passage or make fast to that side of the river between Bomminy 
Thanna and the BhuUooah Salt Chokee, and directed that the traffic should 
follow the more safe course on the other side. This order was carried out, 
and my best hunting-grounds preserved and my breeding-sows protected. 

Whether in these days of rapid posts and telegraphs — complicated systems 
of appeal whereby the local officers are thwarted by ignorant officials at a 
distance, influenced by lying vakeels — and now that the magistracy and 
police duties are not united as they were in my time, you could manage 
things in this way may be doubtful ; but when the Collector-Magistrate, his 
District Superintendent of police, and his Judge are of the right sportsman- 
like stamp, a great deal can be done. 

Whenever I found that a destructive shikarry was kept to destroy pigs in 
a country where there was good sport, I generally contrived to bribe him to 
go to a distant place as an under policeman or in some coveted post. With 
protection such as this, continued for several years, you may believe that 
hog-hunting flourished and was glorious sport to the end of the Indian 
Mutiny, if it has not been as good since* 



Lbtteb No. 11. 

NoakhoUy Gliiin described. — Char Siddhee. — Other islandfl in the Megna river.^Inimdatio]^ 
described. — ^Tippera country. — Dacca. — MymensiDg. — ^Horses in Mymenaing going in the 
loins. — ^Patna. — ^Introduction of the present epear used in Bengal — Oountries bordering 
the Qanges: on both banks. — ^Tumlook. 

The best sport was on the churs on the mainland and in the island of Siddhee. 
The whole western shore of the mainland of NoakhoUy firom the mouth of 
the Fenny river southward to Luckimpore Bazaar, which touches Tippera, 
northward for a width of several miles, was what is called chur-land. These 
lands consisted of extensive plains of sandy deposit brought down by the 
Megna. These had been covered with long grass and light jungle and 
tamarisk, and had been held by the Government itself, and without culti* 
vation, for salt-manufacture. The grass and jungle afforded the fuel for this 



32 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL, 

manufacture ; they also afforded refuge for great numbers of wild hogs and 
hog-deer, some tigers, and a few herds of wild buffaloes. 

The last tigers in the churs on the mainland were killed about 1851. The 
buffaloes were thinned out, and the remainder retired towards the dense 
reedy jungles on the Backergunge side of the Megna and towards the 
Soonderbunds. The hog-deer, which had been exceedingly numerous, were 
just disappearing as the jungle got less and less, when I was in charge of the 
district ; but the hogs remained plentiful wherever they were not shot down 
by professional shikarries, paid for the duty. 

The grass-land on these plains was most delightful gaUoping-ground, and 
fit for horses nearly all the year round. But there were innumerable tidal 
nullahs with soft muddy bottoms and sides (^'ponk'^), difficult to get into, and 
more difficult to get out of; the water at high tide varied from ten to twenty 
feet in depth. These ponky nullahs were the only obstacles -to be met with 
when once a hog took to the open. The hog would swin across readily 
when the tide was in, and would struggle and roll and get across somehow 
when it was out ; but in most places these nullahs were impassable for horses 
except at certain fords and by swimming at the high tides. There were no 
stones in the district, and no clay or hard ground even in the dry season. 
During the six years in which I hunted so much over these churs, I never 
had a shoe on a horse's foot, nor lameness in the feet or fetlock-joints. 

The island of Siddhee was, without exception, the very best pig-sticking 
ground and country a sportsman could desire. Hogs were innumerable. 
One morning I left a jungle with at least one hundred and fifty wild pigs in 
front of me^ and I should think forty or fifty of these were fine boars fit 
for sport. 

The jungles were so light that a few beaters were all that was required. 
But the hogs in the cold season laid out in grassy rushes not a foot high 
scarcely. The art was to start them as quietly as possible, so as to get one 
to break away without putting up many others. Budderuddeen used to 
present himself at breakfast and say, '* In this plain there are ten hogs 
Sleeping, and in that eleven. I have marked them all, and the biggest seems 
to me in such and such a spot." We used to go quietly — ^two riders and one 
man, who would throw a clod and so start our friend. The hogs were exceed- 
ingly gallant, and fast too — would always fight to the last. There was capital 
riding-ground between the ponky nullahs, which did not give so much trouble 
as on the mainland churs. The only objections to Siddhee were that you 
could only visit it properly, with due regard to official business at head- 
quarters, in the winter. With the spring winds the passage across the river 
was dangerous, and possibly you might have been detained on the island for 
some days. The water was bad and brackish. Inhabitants were few ; they 
went over for short periods to plough, and to plant and to reap. An English 
friend of mine, to whom I gave the island in farm, built a nice bungalow 
some three miles from the bank' of the island; I put up some temporary 



DfUNDAHONS. 33 

stabling and huts^ and used to keep my horses and syces there for a month, 
going to the island whenever I could manage it. 

There were other large islands iu the estuary of the Megna — Hattea, 
Nulcheera, Algee, and others. I visited them and killed hogs and deer and 
buffaloes in each, but they were difficult of access* In fact the hunting on the 
mainland near Chur Hingootea and that on Chur Siddhee was so inexhaustible 
and so excellent that I gave up going anywhere else to try for inferior sport. 

The great island of Duckin Shabazpore had few hogs on it, owing greatly 
to the number of tigers. I killed nine tigers in the first five days I shot in 
that island. I believe these tigers came from their home in the Backergunge 
Soonderbunds to Duckin Shabazpore. 

The whole of the district of Noakholly towards Tippera affords hog-hunting, 
but the beating is more difficult than in the churs. The hogs lie in the 
thick thorny and tree-jungles on the banks of tanks, and in the sites of deserted 
villages which have become overgrown with jungles. All the churs on the 
mainland, and still more the islands in the Mcgna, are liable to most disastrous 
inundations, which will always occur at intervals. When in the autumn the 
volume of water in the Ganges and Brahmapootra rises, swollen with the rains 
and the melting of Himalayan snow, and meets the equinoctial tide at the full 
moon coming up the Bay of Bengal with a stormy south or south-west wind, 
and when this tempest continues for more than forty-eight hours, it seems as 
if the flow of the river water is checked by the tides, till at last the huge wave 
of the incoming tide rises to a great height, and with irresistible force over- 
whelms the country for a hundred miles or more, sweeping away houses and 
cattle, destroying all the tanks, filling them with salt water and salt mud, 
devastating all the culturable and cultivated land, covering it with a salt silt, 
and undoing the work of years of agricultural labour. 

Such inundations happened several times while I was in India, and lately 
have been described in the * Times ' newspaper ; they render the land desolate, 
jungle again gains ground. The sites of villages get covered with thickets, 
and wild boars and wild beasts are the chief and only gainers. No bad 
inundation happened when I was in Noakholly. One had caused great 
ruin just before I joined my appointment. A few months before I left I 
was obliged to go to Calcutta for surgical advice as I had been badly 
mauled by a leopard. The Baboo I have above mentioned took advantage 
of my absence to begin cutting down the best jungle at Hingootea, which 
had ahready been half carried away by diluvion and the attack of the Megna 
river. I came back just in time to preserve the remainder of the jungle. 
I knew I was going to England before very long. I sent for the Baboo and 
upbraided him with breach of faith. I told him that for nearly six years I 
had ruled the district with kindness, and that the dreaded '^seilabee/' or 
disastrous inundation, had never harmed them ; I should, however, soon 
retire to England on furlough, and then they might protect themselves 



34 SPORT IN EASTEBN BENGAL. 

against the river as they best could. This made much impression at the time ; 
but next year^ when the devastating tidal wave did really cause great havoc^ 
the belief in my statement was so great that I am convinced that if I had 
agreed to come back and protect the district again^ not a hog in the whole 
of NoakhoUy would have been shot or mobbed to death — ^f or a time^ at any 
rate. The periodical inundations had been delayed so long that I had good 
ground for prophesying that one would soon occur. 

The Tippera district affords some pig-sticking. In the neighbourhood of 
Doudcandee sport used to be good. There were patches of grass surrounded 
by cultivation. If shikarries are restrained^ good sport may be got here 
about harvest-time^ but the ground is heavy. The Dacca sportsmen look on 
this part of Tippera as their best ground^ and now^ I believe^ hunt to the 
south of Doudcandee. 

In the interior of the Tippera district^ deserted villages and large tanks, 
whose banks are covered with thorny jungle, not far from the hills yield 
fair sport. But these places only hold hogs once; after they have been 
well beaten out and the hogs killed, the sows desert them, and they will 
not hold hogs again till after at least two seasons of rest. 

In the north of Tippera and south of Sylhet there is hog-hunting to be 
got in the spring. Hogs are not very numerous, as they are murdered every 
year at the rise of the waters. I only hunted in this country ODce, and I 
know no one else who ever hunted hogs there at all. 

Dacca is a very fine district for this sport. Besides Doudcandee already 
mentioned, there is some chur-land lying to the west of the Bunsee river, 
not far from Thanna Sabhar^ where I have had good sport. There is also 
some ground about the Bhowal pergunnah^ and between it and the Thanna 
Toongee. 

I discovered a deserted little village here, that consisted of perhaps four 
homesteads and their gardens, all gone to ruin and desolation, which so often 
held hogs that we christened it " Neverblank," and it was hardly ever blank 
from 1861 to 1872. I have heard of sport fix)m it since. Why so small a 
place gave so great attraction to hogs I could never discover. I may refer 
to Neverblank again. For more pig-sticking the Dacca men must go towards 
Goalundo or to Mymensing. 

There are many places in the Mymensing districts where good hog- 
hunting is to be got. At one time, and long before I knew the district, it 
was considered the best country in Bengal. There was a military cantonment 
at Jumalpore, on the Brahmapootra, and, I believe, a hog-hunting club. I 
have been told that the scenes in the well-known hog-hunting pictures by 
Piatt were drawn from this part of the country, and I know that the landscape 
represents exactly the hills and plains of Mymensing. The favourite ground 
in those days was the chur-land all along the left or eastern bank of the 
Brahmapootra up to Assam. When I tried this country I was generally on 



HOO-HUNTING DISTRICTS. 86 

shooting expeditions^ hog-hunting being for the time made subservient to 
tiger-shooting. But one or two of us were keen hog-hunters^ and when we 
came to country where hogs were at all plentiful we went at them with the 
spear. I discovered^ however^ that the new police, who had been located at 
a new police station, or Thanna, just where the Garrow and Shooshung Hills 
touch the Brahmapootra, were all fond of pork, and spent most of their time 
and the government ammunition in shooting pigs. I found a huge heap of 
boar sktdls behind the thanna. This quite accounted for the scarcity of 
hogs. Tigers too were exceedingly numerous ; our party killed twenty-three 
tigers, as will be noticed perhaps under the head of tiger-shooting. There is 
no doubt but that tigers will soon clear a jungle of hogs if other prey cannot 
be found. A young sow or a little pig is easily shot by a brave Bengal 
policeman or by a party of them armed with government weapons ; but a 
tiger or a solitary fighting old boar is a different animal, and the brave Ben- 
galee generally prefers to shoot a weaker, less dangerous, and more palatable 
animal. But good hog-hunting might easily be got up on these churs if 
pig-shooting was repressed for a season or two. 

There is nice ground and often a large number of hogs in the Tikree 
plains west of the Bunsee, which borders the Bhowal forest for many miles. 
This was a grand country for all kinds of sport, perhaps the choicest spot I 
ever knew. I hear rumours that a railway from Dacca will go near this 
country ; if it does the sport will probably disappear. Another good hunting- 
place will have to be marked as spoilt, and the spear and the double-barrel 
must find other plains and other low bush-jungle where their merits can 
be proved. I believe there are plenty of good places in the north of 
Mymensing. 

Bygonbari factory and its neighbourhood on both sides of the Mymensing 
river yielded good hog-hunting, and so did Toldoodung and all the bheels at 
the foot of the Shooshung Hills, where the grass was sufficiently burnt and 
the ground in rideable order. This was a country in which a shikarry like 
Buddemddeen was invaluable. In three days' scouting with two elephants he 
would report exactly what jungles held hogs and were on good ground, and 
what coverts were not worth visiting. Without his aid I should have spent 
half the time in finding out the jungles which should have been employed in 
beating them out and killing the boars. 

But there was one terrible drawback to hog-hunting in Mymensing. Arab 
horses, and, indeed, other kinds of horses also, go in the loins if kept in the 
district after the cold season and during the hot weather and the rains. My 
losses were ruinous. I lost by this fell disease, '^ going in the loins,'' six as 
good Arabs as ever I had (each bought at a sum much higher than £100, in 
two instances at nearly £300) within six months. 

I had always ridden hog-hunting on Arabs for choice in preference to other 
horses. It was not worth while to buy really good horses for such a danger- 

d2 



S6 SPORT IN E2\5TERN BENGAL. 

ously unhealthy district ; I therefore had to content myself with clamsy 
Walers — ^horses that would buck and ^ve trouble when fresh and in condition 
— or such country-bred horses as I could occasionally pick up. On such cattle 
hog-hunting was not nearly so charming a sport as when mounted on fleets 
active, strong, good-mouthed Arabs ; neither could I kill a hog o£P a tall 
Waler in half the style I could off a really good Arab. None of the gentlemen 
at Mymensing station kept good horses, or many of any sort, or cared much 
for hog-hunting. 

When at Noakholly, although there were many tigers, every sport was 
held subservient to hog-hunting ; but at Mymensing, for the reasons given 
above and because the general shooting was so excellent, hog-hunting, to my 
great sorrow, had greatly to give place to tiger- and large-game-shooting from 
the howdah. 

As you proceed up the Ganges from its junction with the Megna you will 
find fair hog-hunting on both banks. In the Furreedpore district, near the 
terminus at Goalundo, I was able to give Lord Mayo, the Oovemor-Greneral 
and Viceroy of India, what he was pleased to designate as the best sport he 
had seen for many years. On the Pubna side of this river there must be 
fine hog-hunting countries. There used to be ; and it was when hunting 
from Pubna that Mr. Mills, of the Bengal Civil Service, about 1830 intro- 
duced the short Bengal spear. Before his time it was the custom to throw 
spears, to use them as javelins. You will see this depicted in the pictures in 
Williamson's ' Field Sports in India,' which I used to pore over in the winter 
nights of my childhood. Mills found that the throwing of these light spears 
resulted in more wounding than killing, and the short spear was tried. It 
was then weighted with lead at the upper end and found to be much more 
effective. Then it was ruled that no first spear given by throwing should 
count as a spear at all. Then the light javelin-spear disappeared from Eastern 
Bengal. The long underhand spear used in Bombay and Central India found 
no favour when tried against the short Bengal weapon. 

Going upwards still against the stream of the Ganges you will find hog- 
hunting in numerous places along the river-boundary of Moorshedabad, 
notably at Akragunge. Hurrysunkur, Shikarpore, and the Tar bheel^ more 
inland on the right or southern side, were famous hunting-grounds, and so 
were the churs, or diaras as they are called here, about Bam Chunderdee 
Diara, where Henry Torrens gave his famous party in 1850. I am not 
acquainted with the ground higher up than the Moorshedabad district^ on 
the right bank of the Ganges. 

On the left bank there is sport to be got all along the districts of Bajshahye, 
Maldah, and Purneah, as far as the Bhaugalpore district, and there my know- 
ledge of hog-hunting country ends. 

In the interior of the districts on the left bank, viz. Purneah, Maldah, 
Bajshahye, Patna, Dinagepore, and Rungpore, very excellent hog-hunting 



HOG-HUNTING DISTRICTS. 87 

has been got whenever search was made for it. The Nawab of Moorshedahad 
generally made an expedition right through these districts, accompanied by 
more than two score of elephants and a large army of tagrag and bobtail that 
shot every thing and spared nothing, but were especially fond of shooting wild 
sows just before young pigs should have been bom to them. But this 
invasion generally followed the same route, and did not do nearly so much 
harm to hog-hunting as it would have done had it come about the time of the 
rice-harvest or soon after. .1 used to get capital sport by trying ground a 
few miles right and left of the Nawab's usual line of march. 

In Dinagepore, on the banks of the Tangan, and in parts of Rungpore, 
well known to a famous Danish gentleman connected with Rungpore, good 
hog-hunting was to be got. Details of sport in these countries are to be 
found plentifully in the pages of the Bengal sporting magazines for the last 
forty years. 

IVom the station of Rampore Beauliah, the headquarters of the Rajshahye 
district (if the station has not been again carried away by the river), you can 
easily hunt on the mainland on the north bank and on the churs opposite 
the station and on the Moorshedabad churs. Gingerry and Akragunge were 
the best of them in my time. By judiciously laying palkee and horse-dawks 
you can reach the rail and hunt with the Tent Club occasionally, say at 
Christmas. The Pubna and Goalundo countries are easily got at : the return 
up stream is more tedious. You can also work the delightful sporting 
district of Maldah if you can get away from office for, say, four days. 

In Pumeah, besides the country on the banks of the Ganges near the 
hospitable factories of Kolassy and Monshahye, there is fair hog-hunting to 
be got all along the Koosy river and also in the north of the district near the 
foot of the hills. But in much of this country there are no men who really 
care to spend money in hog-hunting. Shooting from elephants is cheaper 
and more popular. If no hog-hunting gentlemen interest themselves in the 
sport and in the preservation of hogs for it, the shooting-parties shoot great 
numbers of them. But I always found when hog-hunting could be got up 
and a sufficiency of riders to make up proper parties, the planters and leading 
landholders in these districts were always willing to preserve the hogs where 
the riding-ground was good. In very many places popular English officials 
might easily get up fair sport for the spear, and where that is to be got few 
men who can mount themselves properly and ride tolerably will desert the 
saddle and the spear for the howdah and the double-barrelled breech-loader. 

The only other country I shall refer to after this long and wearisome 
description is the Tumlook. This was originally a large area set aside for 
salt manufacture, kept uncultivated and growing large patches of grass and 
other jungle for fuel. In many respects the country resembled Noakholly. 
The hogs were numerous and very plucky. The ground is, however, much 
harder than on the banks of the Megna; in many places there are hidden 



88 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

ditches^ and falls are often more numerous than hogs. It is the favourite 
hunting-ground of the Tent Club^ and some of their very best sport has been 
got at Tundook. 



Letter No. 12. 

Hones for Hog-hunting. Cape Horses. Arabs. Coantry-breds. — ^Walers. Objections to 
Walers. — ^The Dacca banker in the Doudcandee country. — ^The Waler "Badger." — 
Bucking. — English Horses. — Spears. — ^A good spear-head as contrasted with a badly 
shaped one. — Drawing of a spear-head. — ^The bamboo shaft — ^How to prepare a 
spear. 

After having discussed about the country for hog-hunting, we next come 
to consider the animal that is to carry you across that country when hog- 
hunting. This will greatly depend on your weight, your height, and your 
purse. 

The best horses for the sport that ever I met with were well-bred compact 
ones from the Cape of Oood Hope ; they were fast, strong, and up to weight 
— very hardy — ^with bones and joints that stood knocking about on hard 
ground, but, above all, of most indomitable courage. Till the Suez Canal 
was opened, and the route round the Cape of Good Hope almost abandoned, 
there was much intercourse between Calcutta and Cape Town, and a 
considerable number of good horses were brought to Calcutta. No one, 
however, now goes from India to the Cape to recruit his health, few ships 
comparatively touch there, and Cape horses are hardly to be got. 

If you are not exceedingly tall, and walk about or under 12 stone, and 
can afford it, you can mount yourself on Arab horses. I always preferred 
Arabs, and rode them, except at Mymensing ; they are expensive, a good 
strong, well-made, compact, young, fresh Arab may be got from the Arab 
dealers for about Rs. 1200. For Bs. 1500 you should get as good an Arab as 
could be required for pig-sticking ; at auctions and at sales you might get 
one much cheaper. For comfort and speed, attended with power of quickly 
turning and cleverness over rough ground, for soundness of constitution 
and joints, for good feet and sinews adapted to ground often as hard as a 
brick floor, for standing heat of the sun and keeping condition under 
dif&cult circumstances and inferior food, there is nothing to compare with a 
good Arab. 

They seldom exceed fourteen hands and an inch, and the eye of a good 
judge is required to pick them out with good shoulders and good action, and 
as well-shaped legs and feet as can be got. As a rule, one half and more of 
Arab horses get shy at fighting hogs after a season or two ; some never show 
fear. '^Rouge-et-noir/' the best pig-sticker that ever looked through my 



HORSES FOR HOG-HUNTING. 89 

bridles^ carried me teu seasons, and was as brave at the end as he was on the 
first day ; but this was exceptional. I generally had to sell my Arabs after 
two seasons ; but, in fidmess to them, it must be mentioned that I had about 
four times as much hog-bunting as any man of my time, and that at least 
one half of my hogs, when in the best country, were kiUed by myself alone, 
with no assistant to share the combats or encourage the lonely horse. 

If you walk more than twelve stone, or up to fifteen, you will have much 
trouble in picking up Arabs strong enough to carry you fast across the 
country ; but they are to be got, and I have known several :— ^^^ Alchemist/' 
who was killed at Torrens's party, was one ; " Braunstone,'' a handsome bay of 
my own, was another ; '^ Chusan,'' about the best Arab I ever saw in the 
hunting-field, and well known on the turf ; '' Elipoo ;'' '' Ton my honour,'' 
who was killed in a blind ditch at Amptollah ; all these horses were fast and 
up to weight. But they cost large sums of money, and were of a stamp not 
to be seen every day. Arabs, too, are more liable to '' go in the loins " than 
other horses. If you are very tall, little Arabs will scarcely suit you. 

Country-bred nags, as they are called, where they can be got with 
suflBcient bone and action, are as a rule courageous and always hardy ; they 
are difficult to procure, as the Government have agents always on the look 
out to pick up any fair-looking strong colts to mount the cavalry upon. 
Government keeps breeding-studs and estabUshments for bringing up colts ; 
stallions are kept, and Government claims a right to purchase the produce 
at certain sums if they require it ; the weeds and small fillies are sold off 
yearly. But I have seen and ridden many excellent country-bred pig-stickers ; 
they are cheap, too, not a third the price of Arabs ; and if you should meet 
with a country-bred mare with action and bone sufficient to carry you 
across country you ought not to let such a chance slip. 

The next horses to be considered are those from Australia and New South 
Wales and Van Diemen's Land, familiarly called Walers. You can buy 
these up to any weight and of many different classes ; they are, if not 
adapted to the turf, much cheaper than Arabs. As a rule, they are 
courageous; I, however, never liked them. The well-bred ones were 
generally given to bucking, and exceedingly difficult to ride when fresh and 
in high condition. Those which stood fifteen hands and a half at the withers 
and above that were too tall for me ; I never found them really handy, and 
could kill hogs much easier off compact well-bred Arabs. They did not stand 
knocking about ; their feet and sinews gave way on hard and heated ground ; 
but for heavy and strong men they were favourites. Half-bred, under-bred 
Walers I detested ; they could not go the pace nor stand the hard ground 
or heat of the sun. Nothing is more disgusting than to find yourself 
mounted on a slower animal the man you are to ride against for first spear. 
A properly mounted sportsman, up to his work, can almost ride round a 
man mounted on a small slow Waler. I will give a case in point. 



40 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

When first I was appointed to Tippera^ I made arrangements for 
hunting the Doudcand^e country with the Dacca men. I got the Doud- 
candee bungalow furnished and put in order; I arranged for elephants and 
beaters and commissariat, and a day for meeting was fixed. A friend of 
mine, a banker of Dacca, who had long been regarded as the leading hog- 
hunter of that place (why, I never could understand, as I knew far better 
riders in the hunt), wrote to me, asking me to be sure to wait till the Dacca 
men arrived, and not to begin disturbing the grass till Friday morning. We 
were all to dine together at the bungalow on the Thursday night. Imagine my 
chagrin and disgust when, just before dusk, as I came cantering up to the 
bungalow with a friend, I descried a party of spears, followed by elephants, 
coming home from the best and nearest ground. It appeared that the 
banker had heard that I was good at pig-sticking, and that I was mounted 
on good fast.horses, so he persuaded his Dacca party just to have an afternoon 
to themselves before I could put in an appearance ! I was intensely disgusted, 
for I lived near, and had preserved the ground, and kept it undisturbed for 
this meeting, besides having been the chief promoter of the whole thing. 

" My friend,*' said I, " I will be even with you for this. I will stick to 
you, I will ride with you, and, if I can help it, you shall never take first spear 
again as long as I remain in the Tippera district ; *' and I did it, too. I rode 
eight boars against him during that meeting; I took the first spears with 
ease, and had every hog laid on the ground before the banker could flesh one 
spear in their bodies. I dare say I never could have done this had I not 
been mounted on fast, good, and well-conditioned Arabs. The banker rode 
his favourite style of animal — a half-bred Waler. He said they cost half the 
price of Arabs (very dear at that, I thought) and carried him better across 
the deep wet ground (a fact I very much doubt) . He retired to Dacca very 
much disgusted, and never joined our parties again that season. He was not 
a bad man on a horse and was an experienced hog-hunter. Unfortunately 
he died of cholera the next year at Dacca. 

I have known excellent, well-bred, weight-carrying Walers, on which heavy- 
weight good riders were hard to beat, especially when the ground was heavy 
and marshy ; notably " Badger,'* the property of a distinguished member of 
the Tent Club, afterwards Master of the Dumfriesshire hounds, and celebrated 
on the English turf. At Torrens's party, where this friend took more spears 
than any one else, he had given " Badger " his fair share of the day's hard 
work and had taken to his Arabs; but he found these unable to carry him 
sufficiently fast over the marshy ground, so he mounted poor " Badger " 
again, and took the same prominent place as at first. " Badger '' was up to 
fifteen stone, a fine fencer, fast, and could last — the best Waler hog-hunter I 
ever saw. 

The great objection to Walers is their propensity to buck. Officials who 
only have time to hunt on holidays and occasionally cannot keep their 



SPEARS. 41 

horses in condition by regularly riding all themselves on days when their time 
is required in office. No native rider scarcely can be trosted on a high- 
couraged fresh Waler : consequently^ there is little pleasure in riding them 
during the early part of a hog-hunting expedition; the owners are being 
constantly thrown^ and sometimes their saddles are thrown after them. 

A friend of mine^ about the best judge of a horse and the best manager 
of a stable I knew in India, and whose Walers were certainly much quieter 
than others, did at last tell me his secret for keeping them well-behaved. He 
said, " I never give them com for two or three days before they go out 
hunting, nothing but hay ; they eat their com so well after the first day's 
hunting I '^ I hardly ever rode Walers, and I never tried this receipt. 

I have seen a few good-tampered, fast, and active Walers who could be 
trusted not to buck; they were very few in number; and as Walers are 
bought at first some few weeks after they are landed, when weak and in 
wretched condition, it is impossible to find out whether they are given to 
bucking or not till you have kept them on good food for half a year at 
least. 

I met with a good many men who hunted on Caboolee horses ; these were 

« 

galloways — stout and hardy, often courageous and handy and useful, but 
altogether too slow to be put in competition with good Arabs, Walers, 
country-bred, or English horses. They were cheap, standing the purchasers 
in from two hundred to four hundred rupees apiece. I tried some, but 
considered them useless for my purposes. 

Occasionally you meet with English horses out hog-hunting. I need not 
describe these ; as a rule, they cannot stand the hard ground and the heat. 
Lord Mayo had some very fine-looking English horses ; I do not consider 
that he was satisfied with them for hog-hunting purposes. They are not 
met with often ; I never rode one myself after a hog. My advice is, mount 
yourself on Arabs if you are under fourteen stone. 

Men use all kinds of spears and generally bad ones. There are a few pecu- 
liarities which should require careful consideration, but if certain points are 
kept in mind there is ample room for variety. The absolute requirements of 
a spear are that it should penetrate easily and admit of easy withdrawal after 
having made as deep and fatal a wound as is practicable. Yet I know men 
who invariably use the three-cornered bayonet-spear, which is the worst form 
of spear I know : it is difficult to drive in deeply ; the further you drive it 
the more it sticks : it is difficult to draw out. The wound made is small and, 
if not in a very mortal part, bleeds slowly and closes easily. It is difficult to 
make, expensive to buy, hard to sharpen, and consequently generally blunt. 
A good-shaped spear should cut an open wound all the way it penetrates, and 
the orifice cut by the blade should be so large that the bamboo shaft of the 
spear should follow the opening in the flesh with ease. The spear should also 
be so made as to cut its way out as well as when penetrating the flesh, and 



42 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

thus enable you to withdraw your spear if possible even after the shaft has 
passed^ say^ three feet through the hide. If you provide for these conditions 
you may use the laurel-leaf pattern^ or the pattern that for some years bore 
my name^ or any other light or heavy^ short or long lance-head you may 
prefer. My own pattern was discovered by accident, proved by practice, and 
never changed for fifteen years, because I never found its superior or its 
equal ; it was plain and smooth everywhere, had no projections nor ridges 
nor grooves, was very strong and substantial and easily sharpened. I brought 
one home in 1858, and having met a gentleman in the hunting-field, one of 
the leading gun-makers in England, who now hunts from Melton, I got him 
to make me a dozen heads of the best steel and best workmanship from Bir- 
mingham, and I had at least half of these in use in 1872, when I killed my last 
Bengal hog. 

I give a diagram of a good spear-head. The length should be about ten 
and half inches. If the outside measurement of the circumference of the 
socket at C D measures about three inches, a piece of tape passed round at 
A B should measure about four inches. 

The sides of the blade should be sharp from half an inch above A B to the 
point G. The thickness of the steel from F to the point must be considerable 
in the centre, as the strength of the blade lies in this part. The steel will 
slope gradually from H to the edges of the blade. 

The highly-tempered steel blade should be joined to the commoner metal of 
the hollow head at F without any projection or obstacle whatever. 

There should be a hole at E, through which a peg made of iron, or wood 
even, about half an inch long, should be driven till it is flush with the metal 
of the spear-head. This peg is most useful, as it prevents you from drawing 
out the bamboo lance and leaving the spear-head in the wound. When you 
require to take the spear-head off from the bamboo, you just knock the peg 
inwards with a punch and then heat the socket end of the spear ; the shellac 
will then melt and expel the bamboo without fru1;her trouble. When once 
you have tried this you will be astonished at the easiness of the operation. 

The shaft of the spear must be bamboo. At one time I was taught that 
the only right thing was a shaft of what was called a male bamboo with no 
hollow at its centre ; these are very difficult to procure and are much over- 
rated. Let a bamboo be as thick and solid and masculine as you like, it will 
break like a twig if its bark or rind is completely cut through, or if a 
weevil has got into it ; whereas the hollowest and most feminine of bamboos, 
if in good condition, which has its bark let well into the spear-socket and is 
sound, will not break with the weight of a thirty-five inch hog — no, not if he 
throws himself on his back and rolls over a high bank with a drop of six feet 
in his struggles to smash it. 

What is required is a good sound strong bamboo, hollow or not, the same 
thickness throughout its length, which, when you try it with your own weight, 



DIA&RAV 
A SPEAR } 



\ 



BAMBOO SPEAB^HAFTS. 48 

bends firmly^ and into which no weevil has penetrated ; if with snch a shaft 
you see that the complete rind or bark is let into the socket of the spear- 
head for at least a quarter of an inch before the cutting to a point commences, 
jou will be quite safe till the bamboo gets cracked or split or attacked by 
insects. 

A boar will split and smash the strongest bamboo like a lucifer-match if 
he bites it or slashes it with his sharp ivory tusk; a weevil will make a 
hole like the prick of a needle, and reduce the inside wood to dust in a night. 
In either case you must change the bamboo and replace it with a sound one. 
Inattention to these trivial points may cost you the life of a valuable horse. 
You should look your spears over after each meeting and oil them with earth- 
oil ; examine them also after each day^s hard trial. 

Good male bamboos are expensive; but good fit straight shafts a little 
hollow inside may be got from any of the hill-stations — from the Bheerbhoom 
Hills or from the Eastern HiUs. When at NoakhoUy, where sometimes I 
smashed eighteen shafts in a day, I took to using the ^* MooUee-bans '^ — 
about the hoUowest kind of bamboo ; they were straight as rulers and never 
broke imfairly in one season's work. At the end of the season I changed all' 
my shafts and put new ones in ; the cost at that time there was about two 
rupees per hundred. In Calcutta I have paid four rupees for a single shaft, 
and then it was not so good as a good Moollee-bans from the Tippera hills. 
But in tery hot weather, after a season or two, the Moollee-bans may split 
with the heat : never keep them beyond one season. 

After having carefully fitted the bamboo to the spear-head by pointing off the 
end after allowing a quarter of an inch of strong uninjured bark to enter the 
socket, you should heat the socket and melt shellac in it, and keep on pressing 
the shaft into the socket till the shellac cools and the whole becomes a fixture ; 
then drive in the peg flush with the spear-head so that nothing projects. 

Next cut the shaft to the length you prefer. The length of a spear is a 
matter of choice : if you ride high horses you will require longer spears than 
if you ride Arabs. There used to be a rule that a spear should just reach to 
the top of your solah topee as you stood on the ground. 

After this it remains to weight the end of the spear with lead, which is done 
this way : — ^You make some notches in the bamboo, and you should have a 
mould either made of clay or from a hollow bamboo much larger than the 
shaft of your spear. In this you place your spear, holding it perfectly upright, 
and pour the requisite amount of lead round the end. After this you have 
only got to be first to receive the boar's charge and to drive your well-shaped 
properly-made spear clean through the thickest part of his body. The weight 
of lead is a matter of choice : some like a great deal ; I never carried more 
than about one pound or three quarters : the less you can do with the better. 
The lead and the spear-blade can be used over and over again ; the broken 
bamboo shaft can be made into sticks for carrying snipe. 



44 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL, 

Officers in the army constantly have their spear-heads made by their 
regimental armourers ; most men buy theirs from the gunmakers. Some men 
think Anarchellum, of Salem, in the Madras Presidency, is the only one who 
can make a reliable spear. I, as I said, had some made for me in Birmingham ; 
these were copied by Calcutta gunmakers, and I have seen some exact counter- 
parts lately in the Haymarket, in London. 



Letts A No. 13. 

My first Boar. — How I was taught to spear a hog properly by Cockbum. His rules. Con- 
sequences of lending a horse to a man who disregarded these rules. — Sad results to the 
Commissioner from going up slowly to a wounded boar. — Spear hogs well forward. — 
Never hold on to a spear if it sticks in the wound. — First blood. 

I SUPPOSE men learn the proper way to spear a hog by practice and chance, 
as I did. The first killing spear I ever put into a hog was as good as the last, 
nearly twenty-five years afterwards. My first hog was killed in March 1848. 
I had only been a few days in Bengal ; but I was staying with a friend who 
was a member of the Calcutta Tent Club and lent me his spears ; I had my 
own imported Arab horses. The whole forenoon had been spent in trying to 
find a hog ; but nothing was turned out of the jungles near Parbuttia, south 
of Calcutta, but sows. It is not allowable to kill sows. There is a rule by 
which a member of the Tent Club who kills a sow should be fined a dozen of 
champagne. However, in default of hogs that day an old sow was ridden and 
killed, and she fought, and I saw how the thing was done. At last I thought 
I would ride a jackal, and I rode one for some miles over lovely open plains ; 
the older hands regarded it as a ^^ griff-like '^ proceeding and I rode alone. 
It is much harder to ride and spear a jackal than a hog. After a long chase 
I speared the jackal, and just as I was dismounting a very fine hog appeared, 
going fast away from a patch of grass. I rode him at once, and after a gallop 
of a mile or so, gave him a slight prick. He then charged, and I believe I 
speared him in the ear. Then I galloped alongside and struck him hard, 
leaving my spear in his loins; at this I was much disgusted, because I 
recollected I had been told not to let go my spear. I thought the boar 
would escape, and no one would believe I had speared the first real boar I ever 
saw. The boar, however, went among some bamboos and got rid of the spear, 
which some fishermen brought to me, pointing to where the animal had gone. 
As soon as I got round the clump of bamboos I saw him and went at him as 
hard as I could. He came at me full charge. I do not know exactly how I 
managed it, but the spear went in at his shoulder and came out between the 



HOW TO SPEAR A HOG. 46 

Lind legs. This^ of course^ was sufficient* By this time the other men had 
found out that I was riding a hog^ and^ coming up^ I was found dancing round 
the dying hog. My horse^ who had had quite enough in going after the jackal 
first and the hog next^ was standing by. I had the head cut off and walked to 
the tents beside the man who carried it. The tusk is beside me now as I 
write. Champagne at dinner that night had no effect on me. Thus I got my 
first spear and first hog; but it was long before I delivered another so good 
a thrust as that^ and two years' passed before I was properly taught the art 
ef spearing. 

Pig-sticking on the banks of the Ganges opposite Pubna^ I met Mr. Cock* 
bum^ an indigo-planter, considered at that time the best rider and hog- hunter 
in those parts ; and as I was riding home with him he told me that he never 
had had a horse cut by a pig, and that he considered no man should ever let 
a hog wound his horse. 

This was quite a novel idea to me, for I had seen many hogs killed and had 
killed many by this time; but I saw horses continually cut and badly injured, 
and did not know that it could be avoided. Cockbum, however, taught me 
a few cardinal rules, which served me well through my after hog-hunting 
career. I cannot say I never had a horse cut afterwards; but I never 

• 

received a bad wound when I attended to his rules. The rules were : — 

1st. Always gallop and go fast at a strong boar ; never trot up or walk. 

2nd. Always ride at him or receive his charge at an angle, and never 
end on. 

3rd. Spear your boar well forward. 

4th. Have your spear sharp, and never hold on to it if it does not come 
readily away. 

It is assumed that it is the object of every good hog-hunter, after he has 
had a good run, to kill his hog in a masterly style, with as little torture 
to the hog as possible, and also at the same time to preserve the noble steed 
who has carried him so well firom accident and injury from the tusks of the 
boar. To carry out these desires attention should be given to the rules I 
have laid down. 

Nothing secures success and enables you to give a telling spear as pace ; 
nothing ensures grief so certainly as going slowly up to a hog whether 
moving or standing at bay. The hide of the old Bengal boar is very tough. 
Few men could drive an ordinary spear far into the neck or shoulder if the 
hog were lying on the ground ; but if you gallop fast at the hog, and the 
animal in addition comes also at you, the impetus received from the pace is 
so great that you can always send the spear-ihead deep into his vitals, and 
generally clean through his body. Nearly all the bad wounds received by 
horses are caused by going slowly up to fighting boars or by standing to 
receive the charge. I have seen it scores and scores of times ; indeed it is 
the exception to see a hog charge and be received by a man who has his horse 



46 SPOBT IN EASTEBN BENGAL. 

standing or walking and the horse escape. The rash of a heavy strong hoar 
cannot he stopped hy the thrust of a spear with one hand ; neither can a 
horse that is standing be moyed ont of danger in sufficient time to prevent 
the hog from using his tusks. 

I very seldom lent a pig-sticker to a friend ; but once I did lend my friend 

L one^ on the condition that he should not take it slowly up to a hog. 

We had speared a fine boar near Neverblank^ and L walked my nice 

chestnut up nearly to the boar^ which at once charged and inflicted about 
the worst wound ever given to one of my own horses. The stifle was terribly 
gashed ; the wound did not get well for months. The horse was permanently 
disfigured and lost half his value. 

With a very small hog the rule may not be so imperative ; and when 
riding for a first spear a man may be careless and go where he should not ; 
but I consider that the rule should always be kept in mind^ and that its 
transgression is extremely perilous. 

I will give another lamentable instance of its neglect. A commissioner of 
Chittagong, an experienced sportsman, very good shot, who had killed loads 
of tigers and rhinoceros and speared and seen numbers of hogs speared, 
determined to join me in the splendid hog-hunting at Hingootea, in Noak- 
holly, and brought two nice horses. This gentleman had unfortunately 
blown off some of the fingers of his right hand and was obliged to use a very 
light spear. I had got well away with a fine hog, and had given him one 
spear ; the hog then got down into a nullah and took up his position in a 
nasty muddy kind of hole, where no horse could be taken up fast. I stood 
quiety waiting till the hog should leave this awkward spot. The commis- 
sioner came galloping up and said, '' What are you waiting for ?'* I said, 
'' He is speared and must come out of that j it is not safe to take a horse 
there.'' '^Ohl never stop for anything,'' said the commissioner; so down 
he went. As soon as his horse's feet began to find out the mud the hog 
charged, knocked the light spear ten yards away, and cut the horse 
dreadfully. The boar then seemed satisfied and made off across the plain, 
and I had no difficulty in putting a spear clean through him at the next 
charge. I then returned to the unfortunate horse. There were deep gashes 
down the inside of the hind legs ; arteries were divided. We could not stop 
the blood, and the horse bled to death. 

The same day the commissioner's other horse got inflammation, from hard 
riding, probably, when not in proper condition. He also died. It was 
a most disastrous expedition. 

As to the second rule, it means that if a hog should be charging full tilt 
with his head exactly to the south, you should not attack him in full front 
by riding at him with your horse's head due north. If you do so ride at 
him, yon must lean forward to get the spear well into him ; and if you do 
not miss him altogether, he will probably pass under your horse, whose fore 



HOW TO SPEAR A HOG. 47 

legs will foul tbe spear. The horse may be thrown down ; and should this 
happen^ the chances are that before you get up and get out of the way the 
boar wiU rip you to pieces. You may ride fast at the hog's head at right 
angles^ or at an acute angle^ or any way but end on. 

Cockburn was careful to impress on me the necessity for spearing a 
chai^ng hog well forward. If you merely split his nose and gallop by^ he 
will do you no harm. The best place is just behind the head, or anywhere in 
the front half of the body will do. If, however, you only spear him towards 
the tail the chances are that the boar's tusk gets into the horse before the 
spear-wound disconcerts the boar. If you are going fast, the least wo\md 
distracts the boar for the instant, and you are past before he can harm you. 

I used constantly to spear hogs in the middle of the forehead. There is a 
skull of a fine Siddhee hog now in my hall. This hog rose out of some 
short rushy grass at about one hundred yards, gave himself a shake, gave a 
great grunt, and came down at me with all his speed and force ; luckily I 
got pace on to '' Bouge-et-noir '* at once, and we met with a great crash ; 
the spear went straight through his forehead into his mouth, through the 
palate. I was obliged to let go : the hog staggered back about ten paces and 
fell dead. The spear-head was stuck so fast in the skull that I had great 
difficulty in getting it out. No hog that ever I struck fair in the forehead 
ever did my horses any harm ; you are, however, apt to smash and blunt 
your spears by striking them hard against bone. 

The rule as to sharpness of the spear seems self-evident. I know, how- 
ever, that it is much neglected. Some spear-heads are not easily sharpened, 
and some badly made spears are very difficult to pull out. There are always 
iron- workers or armourers in every bazaar who will put an edge on your 
spear; in addition to this I used to sharpen mine on a hone. If you do not 
go very fast at an old boar, you will find it difficult enough to get a sharp 
spear well through him; this of course is more difficult if the spear is 
blunt. I have often seen a big old boar with eight or ten badly-delivered 
spears in him standing at bay, and the leaded ends of the spears swinging 
about in the most dangerous manner. The chances are that if you ride at 
a hog thus bristling with leaded spear-shafts, just as you deliver your spear 
two or three of these lumps of lead will hit you most dangerous blows about 
the head and face. I have seen very nasty accidents given in this manner. 

But whatever you do, if the spear does not come out at the first pull after 
you have delivered your thrust, do not hang on to it ; let it go. If you hold 
on to a spear deep in the body of a fierce heavy hog, all the advantages of 
pace, of a wound well in front, and of a sharp, deeply piercing spear will be 
sacrificed. The hog will recover from the first shock of the wound and will 
use his tusks with most deadly effect. Oct away from the hog the instant 
you have speared him ; take your spear with you if you can ; but if you cannot^ 
leave it sticking in and, at aJl hazards, get your horse clear from the hog. 



4S SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

The above maxims should be remembered by every young hog-hunter; it 
is lamentable to think that in general they are only learnt after the poor 
horses have suffered greatly from neglect of them. 

The spear is not a light weapon^ and if you hold it out much before you 
give the thrust your arm will be weakened and your thrust a poor one. 
There is no greater sign of the griff than to see an inexperienced man hold 
out his spear when he first begins to ride his hog ; you should grasp the 
spear not far from the leaded end and let the shaft lie over your right thigh, 
keeping your hand on the rein and close to the pommel of your saddle. When 
you really mean to deliver your thrust you should raise your right hand and 
arm and give the blow instantaneously as hard as you can, and then give one 
pull to draw out the spear, so as to be ready to go at the hog again and give 
another deadly blow. 

It is a neat thing to kill a hog handsomely with one delivered blow, and is 
done constantly when you are an adept in the management of your spear and 
your horse is a handy one ; but, as a rule, a hog receives two or many more 
wounds before he falls. All the honour and glory attaches to the man who 
draws first blood ; and the worst-delivered spear, a mere prick over the tail, 
if it draws first blood, is considered far better than a blow from a second 
man, even if it breaks the spine and lays the hog dead on the plain. 

Some men, who are too extra-carefiil of themselves and their horses, not 
to put another complexion on the matter, have been known to give these 
humbugging kind of pricks and no others, and to arrogate to themselves 
great credit for first blood. I have known better men come up immediately 
and tell such a sportsman, ^' Kill the hog yourself ; ** and when left alone 
the '^ pricker *' has had to ask for assistance and to lower his tone. I have 
known this done over and over again. There is many a man who can draw 
blood from a hog who cannot kill one single-handed. 



Letter No. 14. 

Pace of ho|^8. — The tally-ho ! — ^The etiquette of riding for first spear. — The hog does not 
always require law. — How to ride a hog in Benna grass. — Hurrrsunkur or Gilbert mile. 
— ^How to ride a hog, continued. — At times men should ride in concert and not 
jealously. — An episode at the Tent Club. — How a wounded hog took me to fresh 
jungles. — Throwing spears strictly prohibited. — Short and long spears compared. — Sharp 
short runs. 

A FULL-GROWN boar goes at a pace which is astonishing considering the 
animal's heavy fonn. He has also capital wind^ and if not blown by pace 



HOW TO RIDE A HOG. 49 

wiU keep going for many miles ; but ordinarily a hog shonld be speared in 
open ground in about a mile and a half. When hogs have to be beaten out 
of thick jungle and forced across an open plain a certain amount of law must 
be allowed. Then it is etiquette to give a cheery tally-ho I or two as a signal 
for the starts and then the men ride their very hardest^ no cantering or easy 
galloping is of any avail ; you must make your horse go his very best pace^ 
or you will either find the boar go away from you or the place of honour will 
fall to a faster rider. When a spear (by this term I mean a rider with a 
spear) gets within a length or two of the hog, the next man is bound not to 
jostle or interfere. The first rider may spear the hog running away or await 
the charge before he delivers his thrust ; but if the hog jinks and the first 
rider is thrown out he has to strive his hardest to regain his former position 
and draw first blood. It is here that the great fun and excitement of the 
sport lies, and horsemanship and good hands tell ; now comes the time to 
know if you have tilted your horse rightly, and if you can hold him, steady 
him at the charge, turn sharply with the hog, and receive his charge without 
missing him. All I can say is that the sport is grand and royal. 

After a boar has once been speared, he gives up attempting to run away at 
speed, and is certain, if not rendered quite hors de combat by the first woimd, 
to chaise the second spear with all his rage and might; he will keep on 
charging till he receives his death-blow. 

But hogs do not always break out of jungle and burst across the open 
plain. Much of the best pig-sticking occurs in grass varying from two to 
five feet high : here you give the hog no law ; he may go any way, back- 
wards, sideways, or in front, and very likely two or three hogs will start up at 
once. You can imagine a line of about twelve elephants; with three or four 
spears at intervals between them, the line stretching over a quarter of a mile : 
suddenly there is a hullabaloo, and the spears all gallop madly towards the 
place indicated, and some three big black animals are seen tearing through 
the three-feet- high henna grass ; at them go aU the spears. The first thing 
to know is whether they are boars or sows. It is understood that any of the 
spears who can ascertain for a certainty that his animal is a boar should shout 
tally-ho I loudly one or twice ; this will call off the other spears should their 
animals be sows. If a spear rides his hog and does not give a view halloo, he 
is considered to behave sneakishly. Having ascertained that you are after a 
male — a regular stinker — and having given the proper tally-ho ! you press 
your hog as hard as you can, consistently with the knowledge that if you over- 
ride him the least in the grass he will jink behind you, perhaps escape, and 
perhaps let in number two spear. There is room for much judgment, and 
need also of good riding and careful management of your horse ; the grass 
is sure to be full of white-ant hills and natural gutters and drains and stumpy 
rooty lumps of hard soil. You must sit back somewhat and keep a firm hold 
of your horse's head. The riding a hog fast in highish grass is an accompUsh- 

E 



fiO SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

ment which requires practice and horsemanship^ and it is rattling good fan. 
Boars, as a rule, fight very readily in grass if properly ridden and invited to 
charge. I think pig-sticking in practicable grass is superior sport to riding 
on the open plain ; it certainly demands more skill. 

There was a well-known place near the Shikarpore Indigo Factory called 
the Hurrysunkur or Gilbert mile. Two jungles were distant about one mile 
from each other; the intervening space was most beautifiil grass riding- 
ground. A hog required sufficient start to induce it to go straight to the 
next jungle and not to turn back. Once fairly away, it required a good man 
and a fast horse to secure the hog before he reached the next jungle : a slow 
horse was useless, and an unhandy one little better; a good proper thrust 
of the spear was needed too, for a mere prick would not suffice to prevent the 
hog making good his escape. Many a fine hog have I speared and seen 
speared on the Hurrysunkur mile ; I wonder if it still exists. Jungles change 
in character greatly in Bengal, especially in chur-lands, and very possibly 
Shikarpore site may now be at the bottom of the Ganges, or it may bear a 
village and date-trees instead of the nice null and grass-jungle that was pre- 
served so carefully in 1848. 

At times you may have to ride your hog first over open ground, then through 
difficult ground, and then in the open again ; and this may go on more than 
once. Here there is ample room for craft and experience : if you ride him 
hard into the jungle, and as far as you can after he has entered it, he will hide 
to a certainty ; you will probably lose him, and you will assuredly be delayed 
and have difficulty. The best way is to ride without pressing him, to keep 
him in sight quietly without any noise, watch him carefully ; if un wounded, 
he will stop and prick his ears, champ his tusks^ and look about him. But 
the Bengal boar who has not been much hunted is not a clever animal ; he 
will go on if you let him, his point being a thicker jungly retreat : when he 
reaches the next open space you must keep very quiet, and let him steal well 
out into the open before you go really at him again. 

If two or three spears will ride in concert and without jealousy, boars may 
often be killed this way ; whereas if overridden, or if noise be made and shouts 
be given, they will crouch down in some hole or hide, and be hard to force 
into the open. 

In early days, when hunting with the Tent Club, there was a well-known 
hog which regularly defeated us, and escaped by getting into a jungle, not 
very large, but consisting of high trees and thorny bSnt-bushes and bamboos 
stretching across the ground, altogether a very nasty place. At last three 
of us agreed to ride slowly and quietly as well as we could through this, one 
in the centre and one on each side ; we did this, and kept getting glimpses 
of the hog. Eventually he went to a ditch, the banks of which were covered 
with screw-pine, and sneaked along this; the ditch led into the open plain. 
I made signs to my two friends, and we followed him for a long way, and then 



SPEAB-THBOWING PROHIHITED. 61 

we gave the taUy-ho I and he broke out of the ditch, took to the plain, and 
was killed. But the more curious tale remains to be told. Exactly ten years 
after this I was again hunting with the Tent Club when a fine boar took the 
same line. When he got into the bamboo-jungle the other spears retired ; 
but I kept quietly going on, and I saw what looked like the exact hog of ten 
years ago going the same way : after some hesitation he entered the very 
same ditch, and, when far enough off to be sure that he could not escape, I 
gave the view haUoo, and rode and killed him. I rode back to breakfast at 
the tents, and there were still one or two members of the club who recol- 
lected about the hog ten years before when I recalled the facts to their 
memories. 

An unwounded hog often stops in the first thick patch of cover he can hide 
himself in, but one that is in pain and has been speared will keep pushing 
forward if not too hard pressed. In this way I once discovered some most 
excellent hog-hunting ground in Rajshahye. I had broken off my spear-head 
in a small hog — most probably the shaft was too large for the socket and the 
rind or bark had been cut ; the little boar kept going along, and I followed 
quietly o^er two plains and through some tree-jungles ; at last he went into 
some low grass, and close by a gang of labourers was at work under the 
supervision of a man with a sort of battle-axe on a bamboo ; he lent me this, 
and as the hog was exhausted and small and was lying down, I stole up to him, 
and with one crack of the axe managed to cut his backbone in two. The men 
then told me that close by was a grass-jungle full of hogs. I went back to 
the party which I had left : they were all shooting from howdahs ; I only 
had been riding and hog-hunting. We looked up the new jungle, and found 
it a first-rate one for hogs; and I and others came there again and had 
excellent fun. 

It is not allowable, under any circumstances, to throw a spear. It is a most 
dangerous thing to throw a leaded spear ; and a person who does so more than 
once should not be allowed to ride at any pig-sticking party. The leaded end 
of the spear will most likely strike the ground, and place the sharp spear-point 
upwards, so as to run into the horse of the rider nearest the hog. Twice 
have I seen horses killed in this manner. A spear which is thrown, even 
if it should strike a hog and bring blood, does not count as a first spear. 

In the early days of pig-sticking a light javelin-like spear was used, and 
throwing was the rule; these spears are depicted in Williamson^s ^Wild 
Sports of India,' a book that was the delight of my boyhood. Apparently in 
those days horses used to be disembowelled by hogs in a manner wholly un- 
known to my experience as a hog-hunter. Old hog-hunters have told me that 
the present short leaded spear in use in Bengal was introduced by Mr. Mills, 
of the Bengal Civil Service, about 1830, when he used to hunt in the Pubna 
district. Mills found that more hogs were wounded by these light spears than 
killed, and that men threw from a distance. He tried riding close up to the 

s 2 



62 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

hog^ and receiving the charge of the hog with a throat from a stiff sharp 
spear; this was found so much more effectual that the light spear was aban- 
doned and spear-throwing tabooed. 

The spears used generally in Madras and Bombay are much longer than 
Bengal spears ; they taper toward the end of the shafk^ and are carried and 
used in a different manner. They seem well adapted for spearing a hog that is 
running away. In Bengal we prefer to deliver the first spear^ if possible, when 
the hog, in the full force of his might, is charging with impetus and weight ; 
and with a little practice and skill it is easy to deliver a thrust with the short 
spear which should be fatal to the hog and keep the hunter harmless ; but 
with the long spear the grasp of the weapon must be shortened and the spear 
reversed, and its length makes the action awkward and slow. I have ridden 
against men who used these long spears, and they admitted that there was 
much greater facility in riding in grass and in meeting charging boars with 
the short spear, which is nearly as easily carried as a whip, whereas the long 
spear is much in the way in long grass or in bamboo-jungle when riding at 
speed. My impression may be wrong. Every sportsman becomes fond of the 
weapon to which he was first introduced, and in the use of which he has become 
familiar and perhaps an adept. Some men miss their aim even with the short 
spear, and some hardly ever miss even with the long. In Bengal, however, 
both the long spear and the throwing spear have been discarded for nearly 
fifty years. 

Often when a fast hog has his head straight for secure shelter he will 
decline to charge ; you must then put on all your pace and make your attack 
in time for yourself and your companion, if you have one, to get two or three 
spear-thrusts deep itto him before he gains the jungle. A great many hogs, 
if well ridden and well speared, may be secured almost at the very edge of 
jungles, into which if ever they enter they are lost to the hunter ; and many 
a hog, for want of proper tactics, manages to gain safety by a hair^s breadth 
before an unskilled rider can deliver a really punishing or deadly blow. In 
these cases a spear-thrust behind is useless ; the wound must be given well 
forward and must penetrate deeply. The shape and sharpness of the spear 
tells greatly on such occasions. 



ACCIDENTS TO HORSES. 68 



LiTTEK No. 15. 

Accidents to Hones. Treatment of wounds. — ^Accidents to men. Falls. — Serions accident 
to myself. — ^How to manage when hone gets ponked. — Ponky nullahs. How I managed 
these at Hingootea. — Don't hucket your horse over manh if the hog is &r in front — 
Pigs' nests. 

Accidents to horses from hogs are common. The experienced hog-hunter 
who knows the maxims I learnt from Cockbnm will seldom have his horse 
even slightly cut ; but the tyro and the clumsy sportsman or bad rider to a 
certainty will have his horses badly wounded if he tackles many really good 
and savage boars. You should always take bandages^ plaister^ and needles to 
a pig-sticking party : if the wound is serious and extensive^ you should at 
once get the horse placed in the nearest shed or native hut ; nothing is so 
bad for a wound as to send the horse off to a distance, opening and inflaming 
the wound at every step and increasing the flow of blood. When the horse 
has reached the shed, you should get a person to hold the edges of the wound 
together as close as he can with his fingers ; fasten the wound, when thus 
closed, with strips of plaister if you can, or bind a long cloth several times 
round it tightly, taking due care, if an artery is cut, not to bind so as to 
ensure bleeding to death. Arteries are not often cut, and never if the horse 
is taken up to a hog at speed. Sometimes it is necessary to sew up the 
wound : this is done by getting a person to hold the edges of the wound 
together ; one stitch is then put in, and the thread tied and cut off; another 
stitch, at less than an inch distance, is then made and cut. Four or five 
stitches will suffice generally. If after a day or two the wound seems to 
inflame, it shotQd be poulticed with a bran-and-charcoal poultice, and then 
washed with lukewarm water, and treated with pieces of Unen and cold water; 
nothing more is advisable. If proud flesh grows, it should be lightly 
touched with a pencil of lunar caustic ; I have found this far better than 
bluestone. Rest and attention will do all else that is required. As I lived 
generally near the hog-hunting meets, and had friends firom a distance come 
to hunt with me, my stables were often full of wounded horses, and I had a 
great deal of experience in treating wounds. The chief points in my treat- 
ment were — rest, cleanliness, and cold water. Many skilled surgeons have 
given me praise for my surgery. 

I saw few horses killed out hog-hunting. I have referred to one, '^ the 
Commissioner's at Hingootea ; '* I have noticed also two which were impaled 
on spears thrown at the hog running away. I will notice the death of the 
Arab horse '* Alchemist " when writing about Mr. Torrens's party. The 
owner of the Waler '' Badger *' lost another favourite horse, "Ton my 
honour,'^ who broke his shoulder and fatally injured himself in a blind ditch 
in long grass at Amptollah when hunting with the Tent Club. Fatal acci- 



64 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

dents are^ however, rare^ and not nearly bo common to horses as in the 
English hunting field. 

Fatal accidents to riders are exceedingly rare : only one do I know of 
positively ; in this case, the gentleman, a firiend of mine, had a fall at Aill 
gallop and broke his neck. I have had, and also seen, very many falls when 
galloping ; indeed, once I had six in one honr ; but I never saw much harm 
done. Collar-bones are often broken, especially in the hot season, when the 
ground is hard ; in soft ground and long grass a rider is seldom the worse for 
a roll. 

I was only badly hurt once out pig-sticking. It happened thus, on the 
14th April, 1858, when the great Indian Mutiny was about ended : — As usual 
I was pig-sticking alone, that is, I had no companion who could ride ; but 
my assistant, a young competition Wallah, just fresh from Oxford, was with 
me, but he only walked or rode on an elephant. It was between Hingootea 
and Chur Durvesh that we put up a fine hog in some '' kewahbon,'' or screw- 
pine jungle. When first roused, he jumped at the elephant and marked him 
with a deep cut between the eyes, and the mahout remarked that the hog 
was exceedingly fierce. I was riding a chestnut Arab for the first time ; he 
proved cowardly, was shy, and it was with great difficulty that I could hold 
him when the hog charged, which it did repeatedly and with great pluck. I 
got several good prods at him, and at last managed to send the spear nearly 
two feet into his body; I was obliged to leave the spear sticking in him. I 
had broken one spear in him and could get no other quickly. The hog sank 
as if dying, and I got off to look at a wound which the horse had received 
owing to his shying and unsteadiness ; the cut was not a bad one. I then 
went towards the hog on foot ; I saw by his eye that he still meant mischief, 
so I told my assistant that we had better get farther away : in attempting to 
get away, my foot caught in a creeper and I fell ; in an instant he was 
down on me ; he tossed me over, and then began biting and cutting at me ; 
my chief endeavour was to keep him from ripping my stomach or cutting me 
in the inside of the thighs where the large arteries lie. I kept my legs firmly 
together, kicking him in the face with both feet, and somehow, either in 
the kicking or from a bite, my big toe was broken ; I tried to keep his 
head off with my solah topee, but this was cut to atoms. I shoved him 
away with my hands, but he snapped off the end of my thumb. He then 
gashed me awfully on the outside of the left thigh ; one wound was eleven 
inches long, and the points of the tusks came out in two places. Then 
some natives rushed in, belaboured the hog with lattees, and got hold of my 
arm and dragged me away. There we lay, looking at each other. The hog 
died in about five minutes. I lay bleeding and sent for a palankeen : before 
it was brought, I told my assistant to look at a certain spot and he would 
see the end of my thumb, which I saw fall there ; he found it at once, and 
talked some nonsense about having it joined on again^ as had been done to 



PONKY NULLAHS. « 

some one at Oxford. However, he put tbe bit of thumb down, and it was at 
once carried off by a crow (Conms spkndens), and that was the end of the end 
of my thumb. A palankeen was brought ; I was rolled into it and carried 
home — seven miles — blood dropping all the way. 

The doctor met me at the door and had me carried to my bed ; the 
wounds in my thigh were washed and sewn up ; the splintered thumb-bone 
was next cut even with scissors. The doctor made light of the toe, but 
said, " If you don't get lockjaw, you have every chance of recovery this time.'* 
It was six weeks before I could stand; I, however, managed in ten days to 
sit up in bed and to do business, dictating orders and letters and signing 
papers. The first time I could get my hand down to my toe, I found it was 
broken badly. As the Medical Board said briefly afterwards, ^' The fracture 
was there ; the anchylosis is complete, and we regret to say permanent." In 
this way I learnt a good deal about the treatment of wounds from wild 
boars' tusks. 

If in trying to cross a ponky nullah your horse gets imbedded in the mud, 
jump off ; do not attempt to let the horse plunge and plunge and strain 
himself badly ; keep him down, and roll him over two or three times towards 
firmer ground. Two or three men can easily do this ; I have done it very 
often. Sometimes you can cut bushes or grass and put under him, or the 
guddies of the elephants. These ponky nullahs give great trouble to sports- 
men. The best jungle at Hingootea was called the big jungle; on the 
south of it rolled the deep broad Megna, with banks often eight feet high ; to 
the west flowed the NoakhoUy river, which joined the Megna here ; to the 
east and north were lovely extensive grass-plains — the very best riding or 
racing ground imagiuable. But some three hundred yards from the jungle 
was a deep wide nullah — ^tidal and ponky, quite uncrossable save at a ford. 
To meet this obstacle, after having been badly ponked when the water was 
out, and after swimming across with difficulty when the tide was in, I made 
some fords with old bricks and bushes cut from the jungle. This did not 
suffice ; I could never find the fords quickly enough when in an actual run. 
I then stuck up tall bamboos with flags at the fords; the hogs found out 
this, and whenever I deviated towards the fords, the hogs returned to the 
jungle. At last I hit upon a plan which brought death to scores of hogs : I 
got a native to ride behind me, and when the hogs neared the nullah, I told 
him to take up the running and press the hog, shouting loudly all the time ; 
I rode to the ford and crossed, and when the native drove the boar across, I 
took up the chase. This plan answered capitally. So now you know what to 
do if you come across a jungle that holds hogs, but has hitherto been useless 
on account of an impassable nullah. 

If a hog gets a good start, say half a mile or more, over ground that is 
very marshy, and you see him stealing slowly away, it is no use galloping hard 
at first; you will wind your horse before you reach the hog, who will then, if 



56 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

firmer ground be near^ ran clean away from yon. Ride carefiilly, and saye 
yonr horse as mnch as possible till he gets on fair galloping gronnd ; then 
lay into yonr hog at best pace. 

In high benna grass^ where yon can only jnst catch glimpses of the hog, 
yon must ride most judiciously, so as to keep the hog in sight ; if you press 
him he will jink back, and you will probably lose him for a time. These 
places are generally full of white-ant hills^ and if you ride fast against these 
you will be badly thrown. The hogs make themselves nests in this kind of 
grass; they cut and heap up the long stalks, and crawl underneath and 
sleep there. Many and many a hog have I stirred up from these nests ; if 
in doing so you prick him with the spear, it does not count for first spear. 
Six out of seven of these nests are generally empty, but never pass a likely 
looking one without disturbing it. 



Letter No. 16. 

QTeat Hog-hunting party given by H. Toxrens, Esq. — ^The riders. — ^The country. — ^The first 
beat. — The griffs. — The first day's sport The evening. — ^Purchase and death of 
** Alchemist.'' — ^Two Boars at once. — ^Hurrysunkur. — ^Departure of the best hunter.— Gin- 
gexry Ghur. — ^Akragunge. — ^Table of riders and how they prospered. 

The greatest hog- hunting party given in my time was given by the late 
Henry Torrens, Esq.^ an accomplished member of the Bengal Civil Service^ 
then holding the appointment of Governor- General^s agent to the Nawab of 
Moorshedabad. Torrens had command of the NawaVs magnificent stud of 
elephants and the use of his tents and servants; but in other respects I 
believe the party was given entirely at Torrens's expense. He asked sports- 
men from far and wide. There were two gentlemen from Prance, the Count 
de Lorge and his companion or tutor. Monsieur Nevou ; a gentleman from 
Yorkshire, P. Saltmarshe, Esq., was present ; several officers, most of whom 
were quartered at Berhampore, viz. Col. Sawyers, Capt. Stokes, Lieut. 
Gordon, Lieut. Harcourt, and others. There were three members of the 
Civil Service, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Longmore, and myself. There was one 
representative of the Calcutta Tent Club, Mr. J. Johnstone, who distinguished 
himself greatly. Dr. Young, of Berhampore, a heavy weight and an excellent 
sportsman, who was acquainted with the country, assisted Torrens in all the 
arrangements. And, lastly, there were the indigo- planters over whose fields 
we rode, who had preserved the country for more than a year, and to whom, 
as hog-hunters, we were all indebted ; the chief of these were Messrs. Dal- 
rymple, Deverell, McCloud, Campbell of Carbolia, Jaffray, Roberts, and 
Battersby. Most of the above-named gentlemen carried spears and took 



TORRENS'S HOG-HUNTING PARTY. 67 

part in nearly all the sport ; bat besides these for the first two or three Aajs 
several friends from Calcutta and the neighbourhood enjoyed Torrens's 
hospitality. The encampment was large and comfortable; a mess-tent in 
the centre^ capable of holding fifty guests at leasts was surrounded by several 
single^poled tents^ in each of which two guests could be accommodated. The 
first meet was at Ramchunderpore Deara^ and the opening day was the 8th 
of March, 1850. 

The encampment was moved when the immediate neighbourhood had been 
properly beaten out. The hunting-grounds were situated in the alluvial or 
chur country on the Moorshedabad side of the Ganges, opposite parts of 
Pubua and Rajshahye, and the kind of jungle was thus described by Torrens 
in one of the many accounts published at the time : — " The jungles of Ram- 
chunderpore are long strips of thick reedy cover, lying in hollows about 
water, and scattered about an immense extent of alluvial plain-lands, the 
cleared portions of which grow indigo, which have formed at the confluence 
of the Ganges and Jellinghee rivers. It is called in the local dialect a dher, 
and, being covered with water in the rains, is in drier seasons not unhand- 
somely covered with pank or phassin as they call it up-country — ^that 
treacherous amalgam of bog, morass, and quicksand which is none of them 
and yet beats them each and all in abomination. The open ground between 
these covers, across new-sown indigo-lands, afforded excellent riding; but 
there was no want of variety. Virgin jungles, self-sown on the new alluvial 
lands called churs, afforded to the curious in equitation every obstacle 
combined that could tempt a man, even with game afoot, to hold hard. Now 
miles of thick-set cane-like reeds, semi-impervious to appearance, rising above 
the head of a mounted man, and covering an expanse where every eddy and 
counter current of the tumultuous waters that formed it had left its 
individual foss and hollow in the now indurated sand ; or else ragged scrubby 
brakes of ill-conditioned attempts at low trees, which, being unable to stretch 
their heads as high as they would like, stretch their meagre arms abroad, as 
mean fellows do in this world of ours to stop those enviously who would 
give them the go-bye ; or else grass so thick that the boar before you is only 
traceable by the wake his rushing progress leaves of shaking stems ; this 
grass grows on lumpy uneven soil, where the subterranean labours of Sir 
Rat have favoured its spreading roots, where the keeping close to the boar 
under the circumstances is exactly one of those things that one always tells 
one's friend to do. And yet again there is a variety which deserves notice 
in the above jungle, that is when, growing in thick tufts, it has forced up 
tussocks or little hummocks of earth from a foot to 18 inches high ; these lie 
close together, and when the jungle has been partially burned offer alter- 
nately the bush of half-scorched reeds or the stumps of those fully consumed, 
hardened with fire and sticking out from the earth like a vegetable hedge- 
hog.^' And so Mr. Torrens goes on ; but I will stop here, and merely add 



68 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

that the description was trae as regarded a great deal of the gronnd^ and that, 
besides the difficulties described, there was plenty of very deep marshy 
ground across which no horse could go fast. But the better the horse the 
greater the distance between him and the man less strongly mounted. With 
such variety of land it was no wonder that on some days we killed nearly a 
score of hogs, whilst on others with yery hard riding we could only score 
three or four. 

The meeting occurred so long ago that the ink of my diary has faded and 
I can scarcely read it. Of the many notices written about that time in the 
papers and magazines I can obtain access to none, though I wrote some 
myself. I have Torrens's life by Hume, and for the rest must trust greatly 
to memory. 

We began by beating a jungle which to an ordinary hog-hunting party 
would have seemed quite impracticable ; but Torrens sent a line of fifty-five 
elephants into it, and by degrees thoroughly rousted it out. The beating at 
first was bad ; four or five gentlemen were in howdahs, and seemed more 
intent on shooting civet-cats and birds that could not be considered game 
than on the pig-sticking ; there was confusion and noise and interruption 
and breaks and openings in the line. Scarcely a hog broke the first beat ; 
in the second a few were forced out, and after that each successive beat sent 
out more and more. Soon the elephants were left alone, and scarcely a spear 
was to be seen. Men had gone off in every possible direction. It had been 
arranged that the griffs (i. e. those youngsters who had never yet obtained a 
first spear) should ride together, and that no experienced hunter should 
interfere with them ; and some eight or nine started fairly with a good boar. 
The result, as told by the griffs, was something like this: — '^My beast of a 
horse ran away, and I never saw the boar again ;'* ^'1 and so-and-so got 
ponked ;'* "I lost a stirrup in a beastly place ; " ^^ I got such a fall in the 
grass ; '^ and so on. But one man said, '^ I rode hard, and when I got the 
other side of the bed of the river on the plain I could see no one to assist me ; 
the boar stopped and looked very savage, so I thought I had best leave him 
alone.'^ It was a curious fact conuected with this meeting that no griff got 
a first spear at all. After the first day there was no restriction ; but more 
experienced sportsmen, better mounted and all riding rather jealously, were 
too much for the youngsters. 

My diary simply says we killed eight hogs that day. But two of the best 
spears had not arrived yet, viz. Johnstone and Longmore. Torrens's account 
does not quite agree with mine as to the numbers speared each day ; but then 
Torrens was with the elephants, and only saw the actual fights occasionally. 
The ground on the first day was what I call excellent ; there was no imprac- 
ticable marsh, no quicksand which a practised rider, following the hog as a 
pilot, could not get across. The riding in the benna grass was fair. I cannot 
now say who got each spear. The sport was splendid ; no small hogs were 



T0RRENST3 HOG-HUNTING PAHTY. 69 

killed ; the slain were taken to the encampment on bnllock carts. Up to this 
time I had never seen any hog-hnnting nearly so good as this. We had a right 
merry night of it in the tents. Next day all the best spears had joined the 
party and most of the men who did not ride left us. 

After dinner^ when merriment and excitement were high, talk went a great 
deal as to the various kinds of horses which had been ridden, and Mr. 
Campbell of Carbolia admired Dr. Young's Arab " Alchemist *' greatly and 
wanted to buy him. The Dr. at last said, " Well, money is a great thing to 
me, and perhaps the good horse may not last for ever ; you may have him for 
Bfi. 1200.'' So Campbell bought " Alchemist," a fine powerful bay horse, 
quite steady at hogs and well mannered. It so happened afterwards that the 
first hog Campbell rode this horse at was, in my opinion (formed since, not at 
the time), deaf; I met many deaf hogs in my after experience. Well this 
hog, which was an old one, seemed sulky when roused ; he trotted slowly 
through the grass, but, sightiug an old woman at the edge of the water which 
generally bordered these benna- grass jungles, he rushed at her, tossed her 
over his head, and inflicted two nasty cuts on her buttocks. Immediately 
after this Campbell and I rode for the first spear : the hog never quickened 
his pace ; but just as Campbell, awkwardly as I thought, rode rather against 
him and delivered the blow, the hog passed under the horse's fore legs and 
threw him completely over, in much the same way as he had thrown the old 
woman, only the horse fell heavily. I then offered myself : the hog gave me 
a fair charge; I got a good spear into him, and he soon fell. But 
'' Alchemist " rose no more ; his back was broken, and he died. I believe the 
hog heard nothing and hardly knew what was going to happen till Campbell's 
spear pierced him, and then he threw up his huge head with all the force of 
his weighty body, and knocked the horse right over. Poor Campbell was 
disgusted and retired to his factory. The hog's tusks had inflicted no wound 
on the horse. Had Campbell ridden so as to spear the hog and pass on 
quickly, I do not think the accident would have happened ; he rode, so to 
speak, into the hog, and they came together with fatal results. 

Of course at so large a party as this, where so many hogs were killed, it 
would necessarily happen that several horses should be cut by hogs. Still 
'^ Alchenusf s " was the only really bad accident; all the other wounded 
horses recovered satisfactorily, and no human being except the old woman, 
for whom a subscription was made, was injured at all. I had one horse cut 
in a way which I never afterwards saw happen. Three fine old hogs went 
away from the jungle at once, on the second day I think ; three separate 
parties of us rode these hogs in different directions to start with. My hog, 
after a good fast run, came to bay at exactly the same place as one of the 
hogs ridden by some other spears. Just as I had delivered my thrust, and 
before I could get either my horse or my spear well away from my own hog, 
I found myself being charged by the other boar. I made a mull of it, and 



eo SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

the second hog cut my Arab rather badly in the stifle, and I broke my spear. 
Soon the spears of all the party were either broken or left sticking in the 
hogs : Harry Deverell, however, rode off to the jungle where the elephants 
were, and came back with two spears ; with these the two fighting boars were 
disposed of. 

On the 10th of March we killed fifteen hogs. Johnstone took five first 
spears and had an Arab well known on the turf, '' Ploughboy,'' rather 
badly cut. 

On the 12th camp was moved to Hurry sunkur. This was ground where we 
expected grand sport. There were plenty of hogs ; but a natural embank- 
ment, formed during the rains of the preceding year, had interfered with the 
drainage. The ground was too marshy ; the hogs gained the shelter of jungles 
of rush and tamarisk, where the riding was difBicult. The hogs, as a rule, 
had the best of it; some were killed, and Johnstone's weight-carrier 
" Badger '' was the only horse which really carried his rider properly over the 
marshy ground. It was great fun, however, and though the slaughter was 
small the sport was most exciting. The elephants revelled in the wet, and 
enjoyed the green herbage which we found it so difficult to push horses 
through. 

After having done our best in the Soonakhoondy ground we returned to 
Ramchunderpore, and on the 16th March had another glorious day, killing 
fifteen hogs again. After this Johnstone left, having taken twenty first spears 
out of fifty-seven against more than a dozen competitors; he was not an 
accomplished horseman, but was very strong in the saddle, and his horses, 
both Arabs and Walers, were as good as money could procure. I and one or 
two others also left the party for a day or two. 

On the 20th March most of us met again at Gingerry Chur, which was 
opposite Rampore Beauliah, a head civil station that was within a few years 
almost entirely carried away by the Ganges ; none of the houses known to 
me remained ; the destruction was terrible. The character of the ground 
where we hunted in Gingerry was totally different from that at Ramchunder- 
pore or at Soonakhoondy. There was no cultivation and no really open 
or easy riding-ground ; the chur was covered more or less thickly with dry 
benna grass ; the soil was hard and full of ruts, stumps, and cracks. Men 
had to assist each other in riding the hogs ; if one man tried to do the work 
alone he soon lost his pig. A good deal of shouting '^ Here he goes I '* and 
tally-ho !-ing was necessary to keep the hog at his pace till he should become 
wounded, and then the management of horse and spear in the thick grass 
demanded skill. Several horses were cut, but eight hogs were killed. 

The next day we beat Akragunge and had the best possible sport. Jungles 
here were thick and small, and the hogs had to cross the beautiful indigo- 
lands, where pace was required and where well-bred horses and light weights 
came to the front. The riding presented no difficulties ; almost every big 
boar found was killed. The total of this day's sport was nineteen. On the 



TORRENS'S HOGh-HUNTING PARTY. 



61 



22nd we killed four hogs^ and this splendid hunting expedition tenninated. 
I doubt if any such great party was ever given before^ and I am certain 
nothing approaching to it happened afterwards in Eastern Bengal. 

The great number of elephants^ between fifty and sixty^ enabled us to beat 
jungles that would never have been entered by sportsmen who could command 
only a dozen elephants^ and these jungles had been preserved as carefully as 
was possible. The Bengal ryot cultivated then very little rice in these parts ; 
the open lands were sown with indigo and a few light crops such as mustard 
and linseed. Villages were few and far between and population scanty. Game^ 
with the exception of wild hogs^ was very scarce ; a few hog-deer and black 
partridges were seen, and a floriken I think ; but I did not hear of a single 
tiger or even leopard during the whole meet. I append a table, copied from 
Torrens's article in the sporting magazine, which shows the weights of the 
riders, the number of horses each had, the number of spears taken, and the 
horses which were hurt. 

The table shows that a horse was cut and afterwards died of lockjaw. The 
accident must have happened on one of the days when I was absent, for I 
recollect nothing about it. 



Ridets. 



J. Johnstone 

Dr. Young 

Simson 

P. Saltmarahe 

C. Campbell, G.S. . . 

Longmore 

Dalrymple 

Campbell of Carbolia 

Jaffiray 

DevereU 

Roberts 



^ 

f 

s 



8t. Ibe. 
12 10 



15 7 



10 12 

11 12 

11 7 

12 

13 

12 
11 7 

13 6 
10 10 



o 




O 



10 



4 
4 
2 
2 
3 



meet 



12 
meet 

9 
meet 

7 

6 

8 

12 



QQ 



20 



18 



14 
12 
9 
8 
4 
4 
2 
2 



S 



I. 



3 

speared 



2 
1 
1 
2 
1 
IMUed 
1 




Remarks. 



One horse speared in 
the belly by kicking a 
spear out of a woun- 
ded pig. 

One sli^tly ; one rid- 
den at his first pig 
cut and died of lock- 
jaw. 

One severely. 



Ghrazed by a jumping 

pig- 
(nie badly. 



Broke his back over a 





N.B. — ^This does not represent the number of riders or horses at the meet, 
bat shows how weight and other considerations tell upon the first spear. 



«3 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGMi. 



Letter No. 17. 

Another large Hog-hunting party twenty years later. — Lord Mayo GoTemopOeneral of 
India.--How the party originated. Preparationa.— The G.-G. and party arriye.— The 
riders and the manager of the heating. — The sport.— The effect of one day on a country. 
— The Calcutta Tent Cluh. — ^The country. — The camp. — Ohristmas doings. — ^Killing a 
Hog in a tank. — Narrow escape of a rider.— Convivial evening. — ^Variety of huntings 
grounds. — Jungles. — ^Beating with elephants. — ^Riding In thick jungle. — ^Death of 
'^ 'Pon my honour." — ^Hoogla-jungles. 

The next meet I shall refer to was one of an entirely different kind. It took 
place in January 1871, twenty-one years after Torrens's great party, and in 
country about fifty miles more to thje eastward on the same side of the 
Ganges. Things had altered greatly with me in those twenty-one years. In 
1850 I was the junior civil officer at the small station of Rampore Beauliah, 
in the district of Rajshahye; in 1871 I was Commissioner of the Dacca 
Division, head of the service there, and presiding over five districts. In 1850 
I had three Arabs and light official work ; in 1871 I had eight Arabs, an 
excellent stud of elephants of my own, a great deal of official work and 
responsibility. In 1850 my pay was about Rs. 350 per mensem ; in 1871 it 
was about Rs. 3500. I was a guest at Torrens's expense in 1850 ; but in 1871 
I was, if not exactly host, the provider of the elephants and manager of the 
sport, with the Governor-General of India, his son, and his brother holding 
me responsible that* that sport should be good. 

The meet originated this way : — ^The Eastern Bengal Railway Company had 
completed the line so as to form a link between Calcutta and the Ganges at 
Goalundo, near the confluence of the Ganges and Brahmapootra rivers, thus 
opening up a most important traffic with Eastern and Northern Bengal and 
Assam. The Viceroy and Governor-General of India, Lord Mayo, came to 
declare the railway open officially. Goalundo was in my division of Dacca, 
and as Commissioner I had to meet the Governor-General. I had never met 
him before, and only knew him by report. I had crammed myself with 
statistics as to revenue and roads, dvil and criminal details, jails, and public 
work departmental affairs, tea-planting and Looshaye raids, and so on, and 
was awaiting His Excellency's arrival in my hottest cloth frock-coat and black 
bell topper hat, when I was summoned by an aide-de-camp. 

Instead of inquiries into all those statistics, the Governor-General, after 
observing that the country was unlike any that he had hitherto seen, 
remarked that he thought the Bengal Civilians stayed too much at their 
stations, and did not go sufficiently about in their districts ; and lie thought 
that if they rode about more and hunted a little more it would enable them 
to know the people more intimately. I remarked that it had never been 



A LABOE HOG-HUNTING PARTY. 68 

chained against me that I did not go ont hunting and shooting sufficiently^ 
rather the reverse. Then said his lordship, '' Why donH you show me some 
sport ? why don't you give me some hog-hunting ? '' I said I should be glad 
to do my best, and that I thought I could show good hog-hunting. '^ Very 
good^ will you give me some next Saturday ? '^ " No, certainly not.'' " The 
Saturday after?" I hesitated. ''The Saturday after that?" ''Yes, I 
think I can ensure sport by that day." " So be it ; Saturday the 14th 
January. Find out a good meet and I will be with you." And so I found 
myself bound to show the Governor-General and his friends a right good 
day's sport ; and I did. 

Lord Mayo told me that laborious official work and sedentary occupation 
told greatly on his health, and that his former active life and large frame 
required exercise, or he should break down. He considered it his duty to his 
queen and country to take one day's holiday in the week, otherwise he could 
not properly fulfil his duties as Governor-General. He therefore allowed 
himself every Saturday as a holiday ; and the sport I was to give him must be 
managed so that he could avail himself of it between Friday at sunset and 
Sunday forenoon. Thus I was restricted to a certain distance from Calcutta. 
Tippera and NoakhoUy were out of the question from distance ; Dacca was 
almost as bad, and there was no really grand pig-sticking near Dacca. All 
the cormtry south of Calcutta was well worked by the Tent Club, whose 
members would never have advised Lord Mayo to apply to me for good hog- 
hunting if the club could have offered him as good sport as they thought I could 
show. I knew generally that hogs were plentiful in parts of Furreedpore ; 
but I had never absolutely been there, and most of the indigo-planters who 
used to know that country had disappeared of late years. I was, however, 
bound to do my best. 

I sent over Budderuddeen shikarry and my Jemmadar of Chuprassies with 
the elephants and Sowdaugor Mahout, with orders to look up the whole 
country and report by post every two days. I armed the jemmadar with a 
little official authority, authorizing them to obtain information and assistance 
from the police and landholders and tenants, for the purpose of finding out 
the best hog-hunting country for the Burra Lord Sahib. I could rely on 
Budderuddeen's inquiries, and after about a week he sent me most cheery 
reports, and I decided on hunting up the country near the mouth of the 
Chandna river, about Mooakoory Factory and Pangsha. Before the 
appointed day I sent my own elephants, five in number, and seven or eight 
lent by Khajah Asanoolla and his father Aldool Gunny, since created Nawab 
of Dacca. The country, as described by Budderuddeen, did not require more 
than a dozen elephants, and as far as he could ascertain it had never been 
hunted, or certainly not for very many years, and therefore abounded in old 
hogs. On the 12th and 13th of January I looked over the country myself. 

On the 14th the Governor-General appeared early in the forenoon; he 



64 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

brought with him his son and his brother and Capt. G^regory^ and also Capt. 
James^ Major Wallace of the Engineers^ members of the Tent Club, Mr. 
Prestage^ manager of the railway^ and Mr. Buckland^ of the Civil Service^ 
about the best man for managing elephants and beating hogs out of thick 
jungle that I knew. I brought with me Mr. D. R. Lyall^ Collector of Dacca^ 
a very great friend and decidedly the straightest man under all the circum- 
stances of life that I ever saw^ barring his shooting ; in every other aim he 
went straight as a die^ and though by no means a finished horseman or well 
mounted he was hard to beat at a pig. This gentleman was with me for 
many years^ and shot tigers and deer and rode hogs with me in several 
different zillahs ; and I never wish for a better sporting chum. 

The elephants were put in Buckland's charge. I directed the spears as 
regarded the jungles^ and capital sport we had. The cover consisted of sites 
of old villages chiefly, abounding in small tanks and ditches filled with scrubby 
brushwood and reedy, thick, damp jungle and clumps of bamboos easy to 
beat ; the ground was in nice condition and the riding presented no diffi- 
culties whatever, 

A very fine hog was roused almost immediately; he was very £ut, and 
we had a rattling race and contest for the spear, which I had the luck to 
gain. Instantly Lyall gave a great cheer — " Hurrah ! first blood for Dacca." 
The Governor-General, who was the heaviest man I ever saw ride to a hog^ 
got three first spears and enjoyed himself greatly. Once he started after a 
large sow^ which took through a line of tall mustard-seed in yellow bloom. 
She loomed large with her broad black back. I soon saw her sex, and 
shouted '^ Sow, sow ! '^ But my Lord rode on and speared her^ and I finished 
her off. On coming back I told Lord Mayo it was a sow. " Why did not 
you tell me." ^^ I did ; I shouted ' Sow, sow f ' '^ Oh ! I thought you said 
' Now, now ! ' however, I did not hurt her much.'' *^ But I did,'' I said. 
" Well you are a regular pork-butcher, and kill every thing," said he. 

The day was fine, and there is no day more enjoyable than a January day 
in Eastern Bengal, not hot and yet not a cloud in the sky. At 1 p.m. the 
Governor-General gave us a capital tiffin — hot dishes prepared at Government 
House and kept heated in air-tight boxes, brought to the spot on an elephant, 
and these viands were moistened with iced champagne; aU under the 
greenwood tree. We soon went at the hogs again, and before the sun went 
down twelve fine old boars were slain; they fought and died gamely. I 
recollect no serious accident. The last fell dead in a deep muddy ditch. 
Circumstances required that I should return to Dacca that night, and I bid 
Lord Mayo adieu as he was standing in the mud directing the natives and 
his aide-de-camp how to drag out a monster, which I believe was put into a 
railway truck and his body exhibited at the steps of Government House in 
Calcutta. So ended one of the cheeriest day's hog-hunting I ever had, and 
which Lord Mayo told me was the best day's sport he had had out of Ireland. 



CALCUTTA TENT CLtJa 66 

An account of this day^B sport, with an illustration^ appeared in the ' Illus- 
trated London News/ 

The horses which the GoTemor-General rode were either English or Irish ; 
a Devonshire horse proved very staunch at a fierce fighting hog, but a very 
fine brown mare decidedly refused to go near hogs at all. These horses, 
though perhaps necessary for the great weight they had to carry, were too 
big and not quick enough at turning for hog-hunters ; most of the other 
horses were either Arabs or small compact Walers. 

We certainly cleared out this part of the country, for on trying it again we 
got very poor sport and no large old hogs. That is the beauty of hunting a 
new country or one that has been undisturbed for several years : the boars 
get time to grow old, and of course every old sportsman elects to ride the 
biggest and finest old grey boar that appears ; thus many hogs between one 
and two years of age escape, while the spears are engaged with their older 
companions. 

For two seasons I was a member of the Calcutta Tent Club. In those days 
the club consisted of about a dozen members, who shared the expenses 
connected with the cost of elephants and beating, commissariat outlay, the 
keep of a first-rate cook and a few general servants. Members provided their 
own tents for sleeping accommodation and their own wine and liquor. Most, 
indeed all^ the members were engaged in business all day ; who but young 
military ofiScers and strangers is not fully occupied in Bengal ? So the meets 
were always arranged with reference to native or christian holidays (by the 
latter term I mean such festivals as Christmas, Easter, the Queen's birthday, 
and so on), and generally lasted for two days, occasionally for four. Members 
could ask firiends ; but it seldom happened that more than a dozen riders put 
in an appearance, and usually there were about half that number carrying 
spears. The usual meets between 1847 and 1857 (we used to date every 
thing in India from the mutiny year, either before or after it) were within 
twenty miles of Calcutta, and at these meets real old boars were rather scarce ; 
but occasionally new ground was discovered. The first visit to new ground 
usually gave great sport, such as we got at Bussuntpore, to the south of 
Calcutta; occasionally we were disappointed, as at Beebecurrumpore. At 
one Christmas meeting we had great sport and very merry nights after it. A 
poor unfortunate spotted deer had been treated as a pet and fed sumptuously 
for this feast, and a long range of fireplaces with fourteen iron grates 
prepared on clay work, which was nearly as good as brickwork, had been made. 
A large, long, double-poled tent stood in the centre of the encampment^ 
surrounded with about eight single-poled tents. Some of the members had 
horse-tents, others stabled their nags under trees, and others under the 
shelter of village huts. The village on this occasion happened to be inhabited 
by native christians, rather a good-looking set of people, with, I should say, 
no morals at all to speak of. 



ee SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

The elephants were, as usual^ borrowed from the Government stnd. The 
first day I think we killed six fine boars. The country, which was within the 
influence of the tides^ was intersected with rivers and nullahs, and at times 
we made up parties on each bank of these streams. If a hog gained a deep 
stream and crossed and there were no spears on the other side he at first 
escaped ; but not always. One hog which started on my side crossed^ and 
the running was at once taken up by two experienced friends of mine on the 
other ; but before I knew well what I was about I found myself and horse 
swimming across : so I went on. The hog had taken full speed through the 
centre of a village. My friends who were ahead rode outside the village ; I 
galloped as hard as I could straight down the street. The little grey Arab, 
" Bullet " by name, which had been lent me by a friend, was pulling double, 
I could scarce hold him at all. At the end of a street was a large deep tank, 
surrounded on the other three sides with high embankments covered with 
thick thorny jungle, where hogs generally lurked ; the hog went into the 
tank with a bound, and before I could stop my horse was in too. A horse, I 
found, could swim about twice as fast as a hog ; so about the centre of the 
tank I neared him. He turned and swam very pluckily straight at me. I 
shortened the spear and gave it the boar with all ray strength right between 
the shoulders ; I pressed in the sharp spear as hard as I could, pushed the 
animal down as deep as the spear would allow, and, holding tight by the 
mane of the horse, reached the bank of the tank none the worse but minus 
both stirrups. The boar came slowly to the surface, and just managed to 
reach the edge of the water, where he fell and died. 

My two friends were waiting the other side of the high embankment 
expecting the boar to break ; after a time, hearing the natives talking and 
admiring the tusks of a big boar, they got inside the embankment and found 
the boar dead and no one but the villagers. The tank was then named after 
me as ^^Simmy^s Tank.'' 

I did a deal of swimming that day and thought it great fun, till I asked a 
native if there were any crocodiles in these streams, and he replied " Yes, and 
one took off a fine cow here early this morning.'' I swam no more nullahs 
that day. One thing I learnt which was of much use to me afterwards, and 
that was to take my feet out of the stirrups and cross the latter in front of 
the saddle before beginning to swim on horseback ; if this be not done, as 
soon as the horse feels himself getting out of his depth he will plunge, your 
feet will go back, and most probably you will lose your stirrups. 

We had several capital runs that day and good fights, and some of the 
horses were badly cut. One man, riding a bucking Waler, was thrown off 
just as the hog charged, and lucky for that man was it that an old experi- 
enced hog-hunter, mounted on a steady plucky horse, interposed at once and 
speared the hog and took off his attention, or there might have been a fatal 
accident ; for an unarmed man before a large infuriated boar, unwounded 



BEATING WITH ELEPHANTS. 67 

and scarcely blown^ would have stood no earthly chance : the boar would 
have ripped him to pieces before succour could have arriyed. 

After a most enjoyable day's sport we all gathered at the tents and feasted 
on the fat haunches of that lovely spotted buck above referred to ; there was 
no lack of well-iced wine. The night was so chilly that we all took to great 
coats and plaids and wraps of all kinds^ though we were in Bengal. Cigars 
were lighted^ warm beverages brewed ; some most excellent songs were sung : 
one guest^ who held a high appointment under Lord Dalhousie^ was perhaps 
as good a singer as could be found outside the Italian opera. Christmas eve 
was a most cheery one. We at last got so warm that some of the party 
seemed to require cooling : one was found bathing his feet in the water, 
which shone bright with the moon's reflection ; he sat on the stone steps, 
and somehow some one else^ by mistake I fancy^ shoved him right into the 
tank. Another gentleman leant against the kunats of his tent^ praising his 
legs as being about the best in India ; they had but one faulty they would 
not walkj so he remained for some time merely ''marking time." The 
similarity of one tent to another in the moonlight was so remarkable that 
some sportsmen went into wrong beds. Those were merry and jovial days 
and nights^ when we were all so much younger. 

The generality of country hunted by the Tent Club was not like that where 
we went at the Christmas party just referred to^ which was so full of streams. 
Nearer Calcutta the boars were sought for in large patches of grass (very 
valuable for roofing huts) in the suburbs of the city^ and in the sites of old 
deserted homesteads covered with thick brushwood under palms and bamboos^ 
abounding in partially dried-up ponds and ditches filled with rush and flags. 
Constantly large patches of cane-brake^ called bSnt^ had to be beaten with 
great labour and determination : sometimes the hogs had to be closely 
pressed through mulberry-gardens, cultivated for silkworms; these were 
very difficult to ride through. There was also a famous kind of jungle of 
tall flag or rush called here '' hoogla." 

The management of the elephants in heavy cover and the beating was often 
faulty. Unless some gentleman devotes himself to managing the line it is 
impossible to have good beating ; and if a person does this of course he must 
forego the riding part of the business. No man can keep ordinary elephants 
in line and make them force their way through bSnt and thorny jungle unless 
he knows the native language, and, indeed, he ought to know each mahout 
by name. As a rule, in extensive difficult jungle the elephants used to get 
together and follow each other, leaving the best places unbeaten. Many a 
wily old hog found this out, and remained safe for several meets. The 
riding at the Tent Club was difficult compared to that in most of the zillahs 
where I have hunted. A great many hogs when started got lost, when, if the 
spears had arranged matters between themselves, they might have been 
accounted for. Very often old experienced members of the club who did not 

f2 



68 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

ride nearly so hard or so well as some of their younger firiends managed to 
spear hogs by quietly waiting at well-known spots; this was specially 
remarkable about places called Amptollah and the Stranger's Ditch. Indeed^ 
I was so much impressed with this^ that at times when I lost the hog I at 
once left the direct pursuit and went to find a very tall heavy sportsman, 
once president of the club, who seemed to know the run of every boar. He 
was too heavy to live with me in a fast meet across the open plain; he used 
on these occasions to say, ^' Oh ! here you are again ; well, there goes your 
boar.'^ I must confess that this was somewhat mean. 

Personally I never rode a hog through the Amptollah grass-jungle success- 
fully ; several times I tried it, but generally came on to my head in the hidden 
ditches. There were always strangers and hard riders who would do their 
best and ride as far as they could. On one occasion I rode a hog with 
Johnstone well into the grass ; it was rather too thick for me. I left John- 
stone pounding through the jungle and rode to where I expected to find my 
tall fidend ; I found him, and he went trotting along, down this ditch and 
up that bank, and quietly till he pulled up, just inside the village jungle, 
under the bamboos. After a few minutes the boar stole out, and, seeing all 
clear, went best pace across the plain ; aft^r fair law, tally-ho ! was shouted, 
and we gave chase. The boar had already been well pumped and at once 
came to the charge, and we killed him in fair style. But where was John- 
stone ? He ought to have come into the open by this time. On returning 
we found that the gallant " Tod my honour/' a most valuable Arab, had 
injured himself so badly in one of the ditches that he could not stand ; it 
turned out that the horse's shoulder was broken, and he had to be shot. 

Towards March the Tent Club used to beat up the hoogla-jungles near 
Farbuttia. These were extensive, and hogs would dodge back and were loth 
to leave them ; but such jungles are most easy to beat, and the riding here 
was very easy also. No hog had a chance ; consequently it was only seldom 
that we found many in the Farbuttia hoogla. Up country hoogla-juugles 
are much liked ; there is always cool shady lying in them, and they only 
grow in the neighbourhood of water; so game of all kinds resort to them if 
not too much disturbed; and the facility with which they can be beaten 
makes them favourites with the sportsman. Being devoid of thorns they can 
be beaten by coolies on foot, and a horseman can ride with difficulty with the 
line and keep it regular ; the coolies must be armed with sticks, and should 
keep on shouting, or a boar may turn back and very possibly wound some of 
ihem. 



NOAKHOLLY 8P0KT. 69 



Letter No. 18. 

Hog-hunting by mjself or with one companion. — ^Noakholly sport. — Difficulty of gettins: 
companionB for this sport — Chur Siddhee and mmilar chuis. Arrangements for hunting 
them. — ^Beaters and tiieir grog and pork. — ^A deaf Hog. — ^Dogs. — Ground and cover at 
Siddhee.--Ghri8tmas 1653. Again in 1854.— Two days of wonderful sport.— A difficult 
HdgtokiU. 

Hitherto I have written about hog-hunting at parties, attended by many 
spears, where two or three riders generally pursued each hog ; but for many 
years, and during those when I came across the very best sport, I was either 
alone or could only obtain one companion who would really ride and 
hunt hogs. 

I was stationed for about six years at NoakhoUy and for nearly two at 
Tippera, and for some time I was at Chittagong. During all that time there 
was but one civil officer stationed in the three zillahs who would ride a hog; 
he was Collector of Tippera, as keen a sportsman as I ever met, a very fair 
shot, and a strong rider. I taught him to spear hogs ; except that he insisted 
on riding the biggest of horses and using rather too long a spear, he was as 
deadly a foe to the pig tribe as I ever rode with. But of six gentlemen who 
during my time were stationed with me at NoakhoUy, viz. the doctor and five 
assistants in the Civil Service, though each had at least one horse, and all 
were fond of shooting and came often out pig-sticking with me, not one ever 
attempted to ride a hog. Indeed, with the exception of one man, and he 
was an Irishman, stationed at Mymensing, I never met with one very junior 
Bengal civilian stationed at the same place as myself who would ride hogs. I 
knew several good hog -hunters of course; but, with the exception of Dacca, 
I never was located at the same place with one. At Dacca there was a large 
community and a regiment, and generally about two military officers and one 
civilian and two or three young planters or gentlemen connected with 
mercantile business would join a party. Otherwise I had generally to go by 
myself or accompanied with an indigo-planter, when I could secure such a 
companion. Very many young indigo-planters were keen hog-hunters, and, 
as a rule, they knew of good country and had two or three elephants or large 
bodies of coolies for beaters at their command. In Bajshahye and Purneah, 
as well as in the zillahs south and east of the Megna, I could scarce name a 
young hog-hunter. Once a gallant Victoria-Cross man was stationed at 
Chittagong, and came to me whenever he could ; he was quite the best 
rider I ever met out hog-hunting, and was afterwards well known with the 
Ward stag-hounds and several packs of Irish fox-hounds. 

For six years I spent most of my Christmas holidays at Chur Siddhee, an 



70 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

island in the Megna. The island was then at its best for sport. The history 
of this island was like that of most of the large islands in the lai^e estuary of 
the broad and dangerous Megna. At first it rose up as a sandbank or quick- 
sand^ only fit to bear wading-birds, crocodiles^ and turtles ; then herbage 
grew J and gradually^ as the ground consolidated, it became wholly covered 
with high thick-stemmed grass and tamarisk-trees. Then the ground became 
gradually fit for rice-cidtivation. Slowly the jungle was cleared away culti- 
vation increased, juugle decreased. At the time I first knew it it was not 
regularly inhabited; cultivators came over from the mainland, planted, 
watched the crops when grown to keep oS. hogs, buffaloes, and deer, reaped 
and thrashed the grain, and left the island for months. At the time I first 
visited Chur Siddhee there was too much jungle ; by the time I left I suppose 
the island was half cultivated and at its best for sport, as it was full of pigs 
and yet could be easily beaten. I should think that since my time jungle 
has decreased and cultivation spread. But there is a drawback to the com- 
plete cultivation of the whole island ; there is a want of water, and if tanks 
are dug they are sure to be spoilt wheu a disastrous inundation occurs. I 
have referred to these inundations before ; their result is to fill up the tanks 
and spoil all the fresh water ; the houses, mere huts, are carried off, the culti- 
vation ruined for a time, and much of the land relapses into jungle. 

Such was the history of Hatteah Island, except that, as soon as the land 
rose to a considerable height above the river, it began to break away and to 
be carried off in large portions by the force of the stream ; in this way large 
estates disappear entirely. This is called Shikastee. Shikastee and Piewastee 
(the disappearance of land by the attack of the stream and the formation of 
new land in the centre of these huge estuaries) give rise to never-ending 
litigation in Eastern Bengal, and deadly fights for the possession of disputed 
new formations. In the days when Grovemment made salt in Eastern Bengal 
these churs were temporarily appropriated for salt manufacture. To afford 
fuel for this manufacture much grass-jungle was preserved and cultivation 
discouraged ; under these conditions hog-hunting and deer-shooting 
flourished amazingly. Similar accounts might be given of many islands and 
churs or alluvial formations attached to the riparian mainland. 

But to revert to hog-hunting, especially at Chur Siddhee. There were no 
huts even when I first visited the island for a few days' hunting at Christmas. 
I got some coolies and made sufficiently good stables of the stalks of grass 
made into matting with split bamboos ; these things were sent over from the 
mainland. A little temporary accommodation was provided of a similar kind 
for the natives and coolies who accompanied me. Sometimes I sent over a 
tent ; but generally my party was accommodated in boats. The magistrate 
of NoakhoUy was obliged to keep a commodious boat for himself, and he had 
two or three guard-boats for his officials and his office ; these were of the 
kind called coss-boats, adapted to the fierce tides of the Megna and its 



A DEAF HOG. 71 

confluentSj and were rowed by from eight to ten rowejrs commanded by 
experienced mamjees or steerers. Before going on my Siddhee expeditions 
I let it be known that I required beaters^ and these flocked to me in 
the shape of ''Mughs," or boatmen from the Arracan coasts^ who were 
always trading up and down the Megna^ and who were delighted to 
assist in the sporty and required very little payment^ seeing that I allowed 
them to carry off in their boats all the huge carcases of the hogs^ merely 
retaining the heads as trophies. In addition to the pork^ I supplied these 
Mughs liberally each evening with strong native liquor^ a kind of arrack. 
After the day's sport was over the men were made to sit down in a row : I 
then took a jug full of liquor and gave each man a pannikin of it ; he would 
throw back his head and pour the strong stuff down his throat in a most 
peculiar manner. Strangers used to admire this performance greatly. The 
Mughs were fine^ active^ well-made men^ and beat these grass-jungles in good 
style. Elephants were not required^ though at times I sent one or two to the 
island to enable friends who were with me^ but who did not ride hogs^ to see 
the sport and shoot a little if any buffaloes or hog-deer were in the jungles. 

A deal of the country required no beating at all ; indeed excessive quiet 
was the order in the very best of it. There were patches of low, thick, rush- 
like grass, hardly sufficiently high to conceal a large boar even when crouched 
like a hare in his form : the aim in such places was to get one hog to break 
away at a time and to leave the others undisturbed. 

When once started the Siddhee hogs were very fast and gave good runs 
before coming to bay : they invariably fought most gamely ; I never knew 
one that did not fight, nor one that uttered a squeak of pain. Often I met 
with deaf hogs, old tough-hided fellows, like the one that killed ^^ Alchemist '^ 
at Torrens's party. I remember at the close of a most successful day, when 
I had killed fourteen hogs, and nine of them running, off my favourite ^' Bouge- 
et-noir,'' I declined to ride that horse any more ; my other horses were done 
up. As there were several hogs in sight, my assistant, who delighted in taking 
as much share of the sport as he could without actual riding, and who walked 
or rode on an elephant, although he had a horse with him, entreated me to 
take his big country-bred mare and kill another ; so I did. This hog was 
very old and, I believe, stone deaf ; he took no notice of anything, but kept 
trotting on. He would not chaise till the spear struck him, and was there- 
fore very hard to kiU. His hide was so tough that without additional 
impetus the mere force of a blow from my arm did not drive the spear in 
sufficiently to cause a mortal wound ; each time I touched him he roared 
and rushed at me. At last he got hold of my foot, and luckily the stirrup- 
iron with it, and tried to pull me off : I put my arms round the mare's neck 
and held on tight ; she gave the boar a very heavy kick and he let go. This 
seemed to have enraged the boar, and he had hurt my foot a great deal. I 
then rode right at him as hard as I could ; this time he charged well home, 



72 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

and I drove the spear well into his vitals. I was unable to put on a boot for 
about ten days^ and the mare could never be induced to face a hog agwi. 
These deaf old hogs give a deal of trouble. 

One Christmas I had the assistance of an officer from the regiment at 
Chittagong^ a most beautiful rider^ who enjoyed {he sport and was as keen a 
man as could be. He brought with him a handsome setter, and the first time 
a hog stopped in a thick bush in a hollow, in spite of my warning, he let his 
setter go at it ; the consequence was the hog cut him most dreadfully in a 
moment, following the poor dos up and rippin^^ him awfully. 

I ofte; made 1 of ^ah lo^, beloi^ng to native shikarries out pig. 
sticking ; but these animals merely pointed out the boars by scent ; they 
took good care never to go near them. As a rule, dogs are not much use out 
hog-hunting. 

The ground at Siddhee was the easiest to ride over and kill hogs on I ever 
came across ; I have hunted for three days running there and never saw 
one fall nor one fence. The few ponky nullahs were distant from each other, 
and arrangements could be made to obviate necessity for crossing them. 
There were no stones and no hard ground, and hardly any very soft ground : 
the air was so salt that there was always a moisture on the land ; when you 
rode through the tamarisk and grass-jungle in the early morning before the 
damp of dew and fog had dried oiBP, your boots would be white with salt. 
The rains never made the ground too heavy ; it was quite fit to ride over by 
the time the rice was ready for harvest. Generally the ears of rice were 
reaped and the long stubble left till spring, when it was burnt off. I never 
saw any other crop but rice. There were no villages, only a few huts here 
and there j the natives had not then established themselves with their 
families on the island. Great numbers of cattle were fed on it : there were 
herds of so called wild cattle ; these, it was understood, were the descendants 
of cattle which had been abandoned in some disastrous inundations many 
many years ago, which had managed to survive the general destruction and 
had propagated and become rather numerous. 

For some years I made an arrangement with my friend the collector of 
Tippera, who I have before referred to as a keen hog-hunter, that he should 
spend his Christmas holidays with me at Chur Siddhee if I would join him 
for the winter expedition among the jungle-fowl of the Tippera hills. Our 
camp at Siddhee was fixed on some secure small stream close to the large 
river; we slept and dined in boats and made arrangements with tents and 
temporary huts for the servants, horses, beaters, kitchen, &c. 

In 1853, 1 see from the diary that we took over only two horses apiece to 
the island ; arrangements for boats had to be made some weeks before the 
hunting actually came off. We killed on this occasion twenty-six boars in 
two days and a half. We had to leave at midday on the third day on account 
of the tides, which always required punctual attention, as the river could only 



— .-» 



A DIFFICULT HOG TO KILL. 78 

be dOssed in safety once during the day and once also in the night if the 
weather was still and the moonlight good. The only event recorded at this 
meet was a narrow escape from a boar on foot : I thought he was done for^ 
and went to puU out the spear^ when he rose and fought^ bore me down^ and 
shored me along the ground^ his large tusks snapping aud grinding much too 
close to me as I held on by the tough good spear, which did not break. My 
companion and some beaters came at once to the rescue and no harm was 
done. 

Two horses were not sufficient. Had there been four or more riders with 
about four staunch horses apiece the number of hogs killed would probably 
have been doubled ; we only rode the finest and oldest we put up. 

At Christmas 1854, 1 could get no companion who would ride ; but on 
the 24th December I killed twelve large boars and on the 25th thirteen. 
This, as I was single-handed, was most glorious sport : my arm was stiff and 
tired with the hard work. I was now I may say an accomplished handler of 
the spear, for I despatched these twenty-five old fighting boars without 
allowing the horses to receive a single scratch. 

I visited the island again in February of the same season alone, spending 
some time shooting and riding wild cattle ; I had better have devoted every 
minute to hog-hunting. The hogs were rather scarce; I was given to 
understand that they had left for want of fresh water to drink. I killed a 
good number. One horse, however, was very badly gashed in the stifle. 
One hog crossed a ponky nullah ; as he was a remarkably fine one I resolved 
to follow him. I had great difficulty in getting across ; but the hog when 
unpursued gave up going at any pace, so I got up with him again. He now 
took across a country where the tamarisk-jungle had been just cut, and the 
sharp stumps of the sticks rendered riding difficult; it was long before I 
could get really up to him. He charged fiercely ; my spear-point broke off 
in his head. The getting a firesh spear caused loss of time. By bad 
management, and owing to the want of pluck in my Arab, the next spear, 
though it passed deep into him, was too far back in his body : he carried 
this spear two miles, during which he came across my boatmen carrying my 
crockery; he went straight at them, and the crockery was dropped and 
smashed. I now had a third spear and a hard fight^ and that was left deep 
in him ; the runners came up and I speared him twice again. He was now 
bristling with spears, with their heavy loaded ends swinging about most 
dangerously. Finally he reached the edge of the island ; the upper ground 
was quite eight feet from the sandy edge of the water, and over this high 
bank he went, and there at last he died. I was nearly an hour killing this 
hog. These particulars are recorded in the diary, which it is very pleasing 
to read once more. 



74 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 19. 

Siddhee in 1867. — ^The jungle fuU of Hogs. — ^Accidents to HoT8es.^Treatm6nt of a wound. — 
Disaster before dinner. — ^My largest number of kills in one day. — Chur Hingootea : its 
jungles and neighbourhood. — An old friend. — The village beat and ** Rouge-et-noir's '' 
behaviour. — Cheringa. — Death of a Greyhound. — Slook Chur. — Adventure in a boat 
Dacca hunting : at Doudcandee and at Sabhar. — Hunting at Mymensing. — ^The Photo* 
graph. 

The Christmas of 1857^ the awful year of the Indian Mutiny^ was one of the 
jolliest I ever spent at Chur Siddhee and the last. This time we were a 
merry and comparatively large party for such an out-of-the-way place. I 
had but one man who would ride ; but there were three others who would 
shoot and play whist and make themselves agreeable^ viz. the fietrmer of the 
island^ my assistant^ and the doctor. I had sent over two elephants and the 
farmer one. We had tents as well as boats^ and had made every arrange- 
ment for a jovial Christmas meeting. I^ alas I am the only survivor of that 
party. The farmer was afterwards killed by the mutineers ; the collector 
was killed by a tiger ; my assistant died^ and I have heard that the doctor 
died lately. We only hunted two days, the 25th and 26th December, each 
day killing eighteen boars. One day we used the elephants. We had found 
a very extensive patch of jungle in a remote comer of the island : this jungle 
was called Dinky-bon, and was, I believe, a species of huge fern growing 
from four to seven feet high ; it swarmed with pigs of all sizes. It was on 
this occasion that I left the jungle once with 150 pigs before me ; they 
covered the whole plain like flocks of larks. 

We did not escape without grief to our horses. One hog cut my boot — a 
bad gash for the leather, but I was not touched. One hog in front of the 
collector, both going at full speed, suddenly jumped right round and passed 
under his grey, nearly knocking man and horse over ; a deep cut was inflicted 
on the horse^s shoulder. I never saw a hog do this but once in my 
experience. 

Another hog was hard ridden by both of us and speared ; he got into a 
newly arranged place behind the island office, which the farmer dignified by 
the name of his garden ; it looked like a large patch of tall thatching-grass. 
Thinking the hog was done, I rode the galloway (a useless Cabul pony 
which I had moimted, as my horses were done up, and which belonged to 
the Nazir) right into the grass, and found it was a series of ditches or 
trenches. Whilst stumbling about in this, I was charged by the hog and 
was unable to spear him ; he slashed the horse's near flank, and inflicted a 
most dangerous wound on the inside of the leg also. I got the horse out of 



DISASTER BEFORE DINNER. 75 

the grafls and into a hut close by^ and thought he would be sure to die ; bat we 
dosed the wonnd as well as we could, the doctor doing it artistically, and 
then, taking a long cummerbund from a native, we wound it as tight as we 
could round the hock-joint. It looked like a horse's leg with a feather bed 
tied on to it. However, at 6 p.m. it was reported that no blood had passed 
through this extraordinary bandage : it was left on ; I returned to the 
island after a week and took it off. The horse recovered. It was quite the 
worst-looking wound I ever saw given by a hog's tusk ; but I suppose no 
artery was severed. 

The three gentlemen who did not ride went after buffaloes, and shot a fine 
bull. We had a rattling night, but it commenced badly. The assistant had 
obtained a fine ham — sent out in tin from Fortnum and Mason ; we had 
one of the famous Chittagong turkeys. Just before dinner the assistant 
said, '' Oh, Simmy I I must have another look at that lovely ham before they 
bring in the hot dinner ; '' and he went into the tent where dinner was being 
laid. I heard a fearful shout, and just caught a dim view of my assistant 
rushing out in the darkness. He stumbled and fell over a tent-rope, and as 
I went to his assistance, said he had just seen a pariah dog rush out of the 
tent with the ham. It was too true. We ate our Christmas turkey without 
ham ; the farmer, who imitated Sims Beeves — '' longo intervallo I '' — ^warbled 
" The Bloom is on the Bye '* and other ditties. At midnight we retired to 
our berths on board our boats, and next morning found ourselves on the 
mainland. 

I never heard of two days in which a larger bag than thirty-six was made 
by two spears ; indeed I believe it could only have been made at Chur 
Siddhee, and then only after several years of careful preserving — the farmer 
of the island and the collector, who was also magistrate, both looking care- 
fully after the sport, and no shikarry or native with a fowling-piece having 
been permitted to go on the island for four years. I alone on March 11, 
1857, killed sixteen boars, and that was my biggest number of spears during 
my Bengal experience. On this, the only time I ever visited Siddhee so late 
in the year, I managed to cross the Megna in the still moonlight, but the 
wind got up immediately afterwards, and my horses were detained on the 
island four days ; they had no com or grain, and were fed on rice. 

To get to Chur Siddhee from the head station of NoakhoUy, one had to 
ride twelve or more miles to a place where a coss-boat could be safely 
stationed, and then, at a favourable time of the tide, to cross the Megna river 
at nearly its widest part ; this took up much time. But there was most 
excellent hog-hunting to be got much nearer the station and much more 
conveniently on the mainland. 

At Chur Hingootea there was a most convenient bungalow ; it was only 
about six miles from the head station. There was a deep stream of nearly a 
hundred yards in width to be crossed : there was a ferry here, and if time 



76 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

was given the ferryman would have two small boats fastened together; horses 
could be made to put their fore legs into one boat^ and their hind ones into 
the other^ and so be ferried across three at a time. Grenerally^ however^ there 
was but one small boat. My reins were always made to buckle on to the 
bits^ and were not sewn on^ so I easily made a leading- rein with which to 
guide the horse ; and getting into the small boat myself, I swam the horse 
across the stream, wiped most of the moisture off his back, put on the saddle, 
and cantered him to the bungalow ; by the time he reached it, the horse 
would be quite dry. All my horses at Noakholly took water readily. 

There were several places that could be hunted from the Hingootea 
bungalow. The large jungle to the south-west was, when first I knew it, too 
extensive for sport ; it was a grand stronghold for hogs and young pigs : 
the river, however, cut away large portions on one side ; the natives were 
always too ready to cut down the jungle on the other ; gradually it got less, 
then it became a most convenient size. It was getting too small when I 
left, and I have no doubt but that it totally disappeared after I left the 
district. 

All the gentlemen at the station used to visit this bungalow, and we used 
to have jovial parties at it. After I had found out how to circumvent the 
hogs at the nasty ponky nullah, as told some way back, I killed great 
numbers from the big jungle. There was one old boar that I knew well for 
four years. Nothing could induce him to leave this jungle; he would 
always charge back through the elephants, and never gave me a chance. At 
last I told the doctor, who generally went on an elephant with a gun, to 
salute him behind with a charge of small snipe-shot, and he did so, or said 
he had done so, but the boar did not leave the jungle. To the north-east of 
this jungle for miles and miles spread a flat plain ; why this remained uncul- 
tivated I never knew, unless from fear of inundation, to which, from its 
position, it was very much exposed. It grew no jungle even, except just 
about October, when some thin grass which had grown up in the rains was 
to be found here and there ; this would hold hogs for a few weeks ; and one 
day riding through this grass, I put up my old friend, the boar I had known 
so long. I at once said, '^ It is all up with you now ; the big jungle is two 
miles and more away.^' He did not run far, he was too old and fat ; he 
fought as well as he could. When killed I found that the doctor, instead of 
shooting him behind with small shot, had fired right into his head with No. 5 ; 
several of his back teeth were knocked out of his jaw, and many No. 5 shots 
were sticking flattened in various spots in his skull. I have the head now in 
my hall. 

Besides the big jungle^ there was what we called the village beat ; this too 
ran alongside a tidal nullah. If the hogs crossed this on the Cheringa side 
we generally let them go; if they broke away in another direction the 
riding ground was good. Once a hog, said to be a good one^ would not leave 



« ROUGE-ET-NOIR'S "* BEHAVIOUR. 77 

this jungle ; after beating him up twice, I said^ '' He is waiting for the tide 
to fill the nullah, and then he will take to Cheringa. If he does, I will swim 
across and kill him, if he is worth it" The roaring high tide presently came 
rushing in from the Megna, and filled the nullah in a few minutes ; at the 
next beat a fine boar at once jumped in and swam across. My friends said, 
** Now, Simmy, go at him.'' So I swam the river, turned up my legs and 
let the water out of my boots, and set off after the hog, who had been 
slowly trotting towards the Cheringa jungles. There was plenty of room, but 
I had a long ride, perhaps two miles and a half, before I could tackle him ; 
he fought well and was killed, and by the time I reached the stream on my 
way back the sun had set, there was a cold December wind blowing, and my 
friends had gone to the bungalow. 

It is one thing to plunge into a stream in the excitement of the chase 
when the sun is up, and another to go quietly into deep cold water when 
there is nothing to be gained. I hardly liked it, and I felt my wet clothes 
chilly ; so I looked about and found a canoe and a pole, and resolved to punt 
across the nullah and send a syce for the horse ; so I tied the bridle round 
his head and let him nibble the grass, and put the saddle into the canoe and 
got across. I saw the beautiful Arab horse standing disconsolate on the 
other side, and I called him by his name, '' Rouge-et-noir,'' and said '' Ao, ao ! " 
(come, come !), and the docile animal at once came into the river and swam 
across to me. My friends, who were smoking in the bimgalow, and wondering 
how I should return across the stream, were immensely pleased with my 
favourite Arab pig-sticker; he certainly was the best I ever had, and as 
clever and as sensible as a dog. 

There was more sport to be got at these two jungles than could be worked 
out in a day, but there were other churs within reach. Cheringa was an 
abandoned viUage, and though once there had been houses and gardens, they 
had relapsed into thorny jungles ; there were many mango-trees, and in the 
season of early storms the hogs used to come from other jungles in numbers 
and feed on the fallen fruit. 

It was here that I once tried to course hog-deer with greyhounds ; deer 
were scarce. A fine hog broke away and the greyhounds after it ; before I 
could prevent it, the leading dog went to the boar's head and was immedi- 
ately killed — his entrails were at once cut out, and I could see his heart. 
The other greyhound was so firightened, it would hardly ever chase any 
animal again. 

Across another stream was a large chur called Slook Chur. All these 
churs seemed to be supplied with hogs from Hingootea big jungle, and all 
the large hogs apparently ran towards that stronghold, and thus, if they 
could reach the streams in time, they managed to escape. 

A large boar having played exactly the same tactics as the last but one I 
have referred to, jumped into the stream and swam in the direction of the 



78 .SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

big jungle. The stream here was too wide and the banks too ponky^ and it 
would have been impossible to have crossed a horse; but my assistant 
suggested that we should cross in a fishing-boat which was handy^ and frighten 
the boar if possible from the Hingootea jungle, and make him take across 
the Slook Chur plain. So we crossed, and by firing a number of bullets in 
front of the boar and hooting, we got the animal to go again into the stream ; 
but this time he was too near the mouth of the stream, and the tide carried 
him past and up the main river Megna. We then gave chase in the boat ; 
the two fishermen paddled vigorously. We caught the hog up ; he charged 
the boat when swimming as pluckily as he would have charged on dry land. 
I plunged a spear deep into him and held on ; the assistant did the same, 
and I took out my spear and gave it him again, and thus we killed him and 
kept the body on the ends of the spears till we were paddled to the shore. 
This was the only boar I ever hunted in a boat. 

There were many other good places in Noakholly, and when duty required 
me to visit different parts of the district I worked the hog-hunting that might 
be close at hand ; but, except on such occasions, I always elected to hunt at 
Hingootea or Siddhee churs, where hog-hunting might be said to be inex- 
haustible. 

I think I have written enough about Noakholly hog-hunting, and you may 
be wearied: the sport, however, never wearied or ever satisfied me; I 
thoroughly enjoyed it. No European save myself ever made so long a stay 
in the district ; this was solely owing to my love of hog-hunting, and the 
clipping sport to be got there from October to May. I always look back to 
those days of glorious sport with fond regret ; but now-a-days I never hear 
of it, nor do I see it mentioned, though reports of sport of different kinds and 
from most parts of India appear in numerous books and magazines. 

My friends who were at Dacca and Mymensing, should they ever see these 
letters, would never forgive me if I wholly omitted to notice those districts, 
where I met with so much goodfellowship as well as good sport, and where I 
superintended the hog-hunting meets for so many years ; so I must touch 
briefly on the sport in those zillahs. 

The Dacca hunting was not to be compared with that at Noakholly, but still 
it was very good at times. The best of it, perhaps^ was to be got from the 
Doudcandee staging bungalow on the Tippera side of the Dacca rivers. This 
was thirty-two miles from Comilla, the head station of Tippera, from which 
there was a good road, so that the Tippera folk could ride or drive to it in 
three hours. 

To get at Doudcandee from Dacca you would have to . ride or drive to 
Naraingunge, the port of Dacca, and there put horses and every other thing 
on board boats : from Naraingunge to Doudcandee the journey took up the 
best part of a night ; that is to say, you could leave office in Dacca before 
sunset, hde or dhve to Naraingunge, and hunt next morning at Doudcandee. 



NEVERBLAKE AND THAI4NA 8ABHAR. 79 

At one time near the bungalow were beautiful patches of benna grass^ 
which held hogs and hog-deer ; it depended wholly on the way these were 
preserved to decide as to sport. I have had excellent sport here ; I had it as 
long ago as 1851^ and also once again many years afterwards. Towards the 
end of my career^ shikarries were paid to kill hogs about the bungalow^ and 
we were obliged to go some distance to the south-east to get sport. I used to 
employ Budderuddeen and to map the villages; the jungle was thick and 
thorny^ and the beating difficult. Latterly I rather avoided the Doudcandee 
meets. 

About fourteen miles from Dacca was a place we christened Neverblank ; 
here I have seen excellent sport. The chief stronghold of hogs was situated 
less than a mile from a nullah (I am not going to write more about tidal 
nullahs ; there were none in Dacca) . Nine times out of ten the hogs took to 
this nullah^ and it was necessary to spear or turn them before they crossed. 
We did occasionally cross and follow them^ but I cannot call to mind that we 
ever speared a Neverblank hog after he crossed the nullah. This place re- 
quired that a rider should have a really fast horse and ride him right well ; 
it was great sport, and invariably gave great enjoyment. If the hog once 
turned, his death might be regarded as certain; a number, however, 
escaped. 

There were other nice jungles about, and on one occasion in the first bushes 
we beat we found a tiger. He bounded across the rice-fields in a beautiful 
manner ; no one was ready with a gun, and no one was foolish enough to 
follow up with a spear. 

Besides these two meets there was at times fair sport to be got near 
Thanna Sabhar, in large plains much covered with benna grass. Hog-deer, 
bufEaloes, and floriken were to be got here also. This place, too, was much 
poached if the indigo-planter at Phoolburreah did not interest himself in 
preserving hogs. Indigo-cultivation has disappeared now, and the factories 
have been bought by the Nawabs of Dacca, sworn foes to swine, but who 
might, I know, be induced to preserve if the generality of Dacca officials 
wished hog-hunting to be got up. 

In my day the coolies (Boonas) attached to the indigo factories used to 
come in hundreds and beat this grass. The riding was rather difficult and 
many hogs escaped ; it was bad for horses, and their legs and sinews often 
were hurt. There was one bheel or place where water remained all the year 
round, and this was generally a sure find ; it was from this I killed my last 
buffalo. I rode on horseback, as will be told in due course. 

For other hog-hunting, the Dacca sportsmen must now, I think, join with 
parties which hunt about the country to which I took Lord Mayo. 

At one time Mymensing had a great name as a hog-hunting district ; the 
scene of those well-known hog-hunting pictures by Capt. Piatt was laid in 
Mymensing. A regiment was stationed there, and a hog-hunting club carried 



80 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

OD the war. The military have now removed to Assam^ and a quasi-military 
police shoot down the hogs on the Brahmapootra churs. This might easily 
be amended if the police officers in Lower Assam chose to encoorage hog- 
himting. 

From Jumalpore subdivision in Mymensing all the way up the Brahma^ 
pootra river to Assam there is hog-hunting ground : there are large grassy 
plains; interspersed amongst these are nice patches of tamarisk-jungle. 
When the benna grass and other grass is well burnt and fed down by cattle^ 
and where the tamarisk or jhow patches are not too large^ hogs from the hills 
will assuredly be found if not too systematically fired at. 

The soil is hard and very different from that of NoakhoUy, and the stumps 
of the strong grass are not nice for horses' fetlocks^ and the riding over 
cut tamarisk is dangerously abominable ; but these are the plains where the 
best hunting was at one time to be founds and similar plains exist in Bogra, 
Pubna^ Dinagepore^ Bajshahye, and Pumeah; and wherever I have come 
across them I have found hogs and riding ground. 

Close to the head station of Mymensing stood the factory of Bygonbari. 
The jungles here, scattered about the indigo-lands^ consisted of patches of 
null-grass on the borders of streams and water. I had excellent hog-hunting 
here. It was here that I obtained the finest head as to tusks I ever saw ; 
it was exhibited at the Zoological Society in 1872^ and drawn in the ' Blus- 
trated News ' or ' The Graphic' The upper tusk had been knocked out, and 
in consequence the lower tusk had grown so as to form more than half a 
circle ; the point curled round till it rested on a strong back tooth ; this 
stopped growth in this direction, but the pressure was so great that the root 
of the tusk was forced backwards and is actually coming through the lower 
jaw. I have the skull now and the tusk, but unfortunately it got broken. 
This hog I calculated must have been at least seven years old. 

There are nice spots for hog-hunting all over the Mymensing districts. All 
along the base of the Shooshung hills in January, February, and March good 
sport is to be got; here you will find patches of rosebush-jungle — a jungle 
which always seemed to me to be most inviting to all game, and which I shall 
probably refer to in notices of tiger-, bear-, and deer-shooting. Hogs delight 
in rosebush-jungle, and it is only to be found near water. 

On the south-western side of the great Bhowal jungle in Mymensing are 
beautiful plains for hog-hunting. Near Fanch Tikree, and all along the bank 
of the river between SoobunkhoUy and Thanna Sabhar in Dacca, I worked 
this country chiefly for tigers and deer, and once I shot down the whole 
course of the Bunsee river, living in boats and moving on a little every day ; 
but, as I have already stated, that dread disease, going in the loins, was the 
great stopper to good hog-hunting in Mymensing. 

I have given a curious portrait of myself and a hog ; its history was this : — 
A valued and most hospitable friend of mine in Purneah wished much to take 



THE FHOTOGBAFH. 81 

a photograph of m jself and a real hog killed on his gronnda ; so he arranged 
the apparatus near a good jangle^ and -we beat for a hog^ and I killed the one 
now shown in the drawing. It was found almost impossible to get the hog- 
hunter and his quarry into focus for the camera in any other positions than 
the one in which they are shown ; so, though it looked absurd, the photograph 
was taken. It is, of course, true and correct ; you will observe the straight 
line of the boar's head and the smallness and shape of his ear. The tusk does 
not come out very clearly, but it is as it really existed. I never saw any 
other picture of a hog taken in the field. That hog was not a very large one, 
ancT was, we thought, between two and three years old. 

With reference to the Plates of hog-hunting, you will observe that in one 
the hog has jinked to the right and doubled back, the horse exhibits timidity 
and is bounding wildly to the left. In another an inexperienced hog-hunter 
has slightly overridden his hog iu the mud and rushes, and is wildly trying 
to draw first blood by a backhanded stroke of his spear, which will not do 
much harm to the boar. In a third, a small stumpy two-year-old Chur 
Siddhee hog is chai^ng after the manner of Chur Siddhee hogs. The rider 
has speared him fairly ; but the blow will not be immediately fatal, it will 
pass rather too much behind into the body of the hog. 

In these pictures nothing is exaggerated ; all the boars are small rather. I 
failed to obtain sufficiently good plates of tiger-hunting. I have never 
seen any to equal those by Phillip Trench, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Service. 
In these the trunks of the elephants are curled up : the terror of the animals 
and their attitudes and the exact mode of attack by a wounded tiger are 
singularly true; there is no elephant falsely waving his trunk in the air, 
and no impossible attitude of a tiger. Every animal and man is drawn 
after correct observation of facts ; and truth is what is required in all plates 
which profess to instruct. 



Lbtteb No. 20. 

Introductory to Tiger-shooting. — Keep Elephants of your own as soon as you can afford it. 
One at first and then more. — Formerly many dvilians kept Studs of Elephants. — ^The 
Judge my first instructor as regarded Tigers. His howdahs. A good pattern necessary. 
— Elephants, how to be procured. Females preferable to Males. Elephants becoming 
<< Must.'" — ^My own Stud.— Size of Elephants. Backs, pace, age, courage. 

The systematic regular continued pursuit of the sport of tiger-hunting is 
quite a different matter from the occasional shooting of a tiger on some 



82 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

accidental fortunate occasions^ Buch as when one is met with out hog-hnnting^ 
or during an ordinary shikar expedition^ got up for deer^ partridge^ and 
miscellaneous sport. You may^ and probably will^ meet with a tiger or two 
in the course of your Indian career when shooting at some of these common 
sporting expeditions ; but I have known men who have attended such meetings 
for twenty years without being able to kill their first tiger. If, however, you 
aspire to being a regular determined tiger-shooter you must have elephants 
of your own. The getting together a stud of elephants is a most expensive 
undertaking ; probably you will begin with one elephant and gradually get 
more, till you own four or five. This last number is the maximum you 
should require. 

Shooting on foot, except for snipe and quail, is too laborious to be long 
continued. With one howdah-elephant you can place yourself in the middle 
of a line of beaters and get an immense deal of sport killing deer and 
partridges and various kinds of game ; you may even be useful in beating 
out hogs I but this sort of thing will not answer for regular tiger-shooting. 
I began with one elephant : I soon added to this two small beating-elephants ; 
with these three I managed to carry about a very small camp equipage. Soon 
I added a second howdah-elephant ; this was' a very great addition, as it 
allowed me to change the howdah and not to burden one elephant every day 
with the hardest work. I found five elephants enough for all my purposes, 
for I generally could command the services of others not my own. I kept 
five before I took furlough to England ; and as soon as possible after my 
return I got up another stud of five and kept it for ten years. 

When I left Calcutta College, where, in those days, civilians were required 
to pass examinations before going on duty into the interior of the country, 
several civilians of note kept studs of elephants (I may name without offence 
Messrs. Yule, Grant, Cheape, Bracken, Taylor, Macdonald) ; but when I left 
Bengal in 1872 there was hardly one civilian but myself who owned 
elephants. 

My first lessons in tiger-shooting were gained from the judge of Rajshahye, 
who had elephants, and asked me to come with him for a few days on his 
annual spring shikar trip : from him I learnt much about ball-shooting and 
howdahs and elephant-gear ; also what sort of jungle was best for each par- 
ticular kind of large game, and how and when to beat for it. The judge's 
style of howdah was on the whole the one I liked best ; of course I thought 
I improved on it, but my best howdahs were built chiefly on the same lines^ 
and all important points as to shape, strength, and lightness were kept in 
view all the time I was in India. I compared these with clumsy heavy things 
common at Dacca and with some from the Pumeah district ; in these very many 
faults were apparent. My howdahs always commanded a ready sale when I 
wanted to build new ones, and I may now say that my expenditure on howdahs 
when my whole shooting and hunting in India ended amounted to nothing at 



ELEPHANTS. 88 

aU. A good thing, especially if rare, generally brings its value. I see no 
reason why you should not be equally fortunate in the matter of howdahs ; 
so get a good pattern, and build and improve on it. 

Before, however, treating of the equipment and gear of an elephant it is 
right that I should tell you something of the animal itself. Elephants are 
not to be obtained at a moment's notice ; they may be bought at Sonapore 
fair, or at Nake Murd fair, north of Rungpore, or from itinerant elephant 
merchants, or from zemindars and planters ; sometimes small ones are sold 
by the Grovemment Ehedda establishment, and occasionally some are 
imported from British Burma. My best belonged to friends, and were pur- 
chased when these gentlemen parted with studs ; the others were picked up 
from zemindars or traders, chiefly from Mymensing. Occasionally licences 
were given to persons to catch elephants in the hills bordering on Mymensing, 
Sylhet, and Chittagong, and from these people both fresh-caught elephants 
and elephants that had been in use many years were obtainable. 

Occasionally female elephants caught wild have dropped calves after cap- 
ture, and these have been brought up ; but, as a rule, they always turn out 
badly. They have not that dread of man which seems to exist in all wild 
elephants. 

A fresh-caught elephant is a precarious purchase ; it is very likely to die, 
and it may be years before its back becomes fit for bearing heavy burdens ; 
but if you do buy a good-shaped tractable animal, which has been caught say 
two years, and it turns out well, it will be worth five times as much as when 
only two years from the forests. 

I have bought very small elephants for one hundred rupees. I have bought 
good howdah-elephants, koonkees, or decoy-elephants for two thousand five 
hundred rupees. When I sold off my stud in 1872 my two best brought 
three thousand rupees each. I have known many sold for five thousand 
rupees an elephant. A really large and docile male would bring a tre- 
mendous price. 

I never bought a male elephant, and would recommend you never to buy 
one; they are apt to become quite ungovernable at times when ''Must/' 
that is at rut. You may incur a great respousibility if they cause loss of life 
or do much damage ; you may find them useless exactly at the time, and 
perhaps the only time in the year you want to use them. They require much 
better mahouts than female elephants do. Nevertheless I have used male 
elephants belonging to others, and have seen other persons use them, and 
they have behaved most courageously and brilliantly at times when the 
females have been cowed almost to uselessness. 

There is a small hole in a male elephant's head, not far from the eye, 
about the size of a large pin's head ; some time before the animal becomes 
" must,'' matter exudes from this hole. When this sign appears, it is usual 
to chain the animal securely and to starve and to physic him ; by such 

o2 



84 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

means the fury which is sexual is lessened and exhausted ; but I do not pro- 
fess to be learned in the management of male elephants. 

Most of the elephants which composed my stud after furlough were first 
heard of by me at the Club in St. James's Square^ London. One stud then 
belonged to a Bengal civilian^ who parted with them to a Calcutta merchant ; 
these were sent to me to take care of^ and eventually I bought the two best. 
I bought also two others from a member of the club : one of these was 
small^ but she was the fastest and perhaps the best elephant I ever owned ; 
she had a remarkably hairy head. Alas ! she died before I had her three 
seasons. The other^ though large and strongs was old and slow ; she^ how- 
ever, lasted out my time^ and sold well when I retired : she was a well- 
known animal named '^ Shamkolly.'^ 

I do not think there is any advantage to a sportsman in having very tall 
elephants. I cannot say much about exact heights. The largest elephant I 
ever rode or saw was one called " Bruce ; " it belonged to the Government 
stud at Dacca ; it was^ I believe, about ten feet high, and had only one tusk^ 
which was magnificent. This animal shook me to pieces ; T could not shoot 
properly o£P him. Latterly he became so slow as to be almost a nuisance 
when in line. 

My own female elephants, the large howdah ones, varied in size, I think, 
from a little under seven feet to nearly eight at the shoulder; I never 
recorded the exact size. Mahouts and merchants who sold elephants always 
made them out taller than they actually were ; I went by the rule '^ Twice 
round an elephant's fore foot, when standing with it on the ground, is the 
height of the animal at the shoulder.'' Stout, deep-bodied, short-legged, 
broad-backed elephants are the ones to choose ; lanky, long-legged, narrow 
animals are of much less value. Before purchasing an elephant you should 
examine his back most closely ; if the back shows marks of great sores that 
have been operated on, do not pay a high price. An elephant given to sore 
back is almost useless for a howdah. No elephant should ever get a sore 
back : the injury comes from using guddies not properly made and fitted to 
the back. I will notice this point when I come to " Guddies." 

It is a great thing to have fast elephants with easy paces ; these of course 
are easily found out if you know anything about the animals. If there is any 
deficiency about the nails or the appearance of the tail, it should affect the 
price. A little experience soon makes a man a judge of age; you can tell 
nothing from the teeth, but the appearance of an old elephant's head is very 
different from a young one's, and old elephants invariably are slow ; you can 
at once tell if the animal goes a naturally quick pace or whether it is got out 
of him with dif&culty by his driver. The temper is a great matter, but you 
can only find that out, like the courage of the animal, by experience, after 
some time. Occasionally elephimts get demoralized, and for a time are 
cowardly ; but under good management they will often regain their courage. 



BORROWED ELEPHANTS. 85 

if ever they possessed it. What is real courage in an elephant I cannot 
exactly determine. The little hairy elephant which died was considered 
exceedingly plucky at tigers, but one day it ran away for two miles, with me 
on its back, from a jungle-hen ; my very staunchest elephant bolted once 
several times from a rat, which came at it angrily squeaking, with its back 
up and fur standing on end. 



Letter No. 21. 

Borrowed Elephants. — Mahouts and Mates. — Sowdangor Mahout. His pluck somewhat 
embarrassing. — Cost of keeping Elephants. — ^DuU-grass bheels. Dry districts. — ^Food. 
Cost varies. — Elephants delicate animals. — Death of '^ Jaboona." — ^Eating earth. — Sore 
eyes. Sore backs. 

If you have no elephants of your own you will have to borrow or hire them 
as best you can. When you keep elephants you will find it easy to obtain 
the services of a few more baggage- or beating-elephants; your mahouts 
will know about all other elephants in the neighbourhood, what work they 
may be employed on, and when and how they may be most quickly got at. 
Zemindars and traders generally lend elephants willingly to such English 
sportsmen as treat them kindly and liberally ; you must pay for their keep 
and the wages of the attendants when with you, and give a suitable backsheish 
when you send them back. It is not very easy to get elephants lent to you 
to go to distant expeditions. I found it best to obtain the loan of elephants 
frt)m owners who lived near the country to be hunted ; this could only be 
done where you yourself were weU known from having been in the country 
before, or through the agency of sporting friends and planters in the neigh- 
bourhood. 

I have heard that elephants could be hired in Sylhet by the week or month. 
I never had any offered to me, and I never knew any sportsman who regularly 
hired elephants. 

My nazir at NoakhoUy had a male elephant which was always at my 
disposal, and was, indeed, kept by me for ten out of twelve months in the 
year. The animal added much to the nazir's dignity ; he lent it at times for 
processions and journeys, but the keep was more than he could well afford : 
I generally kept it, fed it, and paid the attendants. Both the mahout and 
the elephant died when I was at NoakhoUy, and I missed it greatly during 
my last season. 

Each elephant requires two attendants, the mahout and his mate. A good 
mahout is very hard indeed to get : the best I had stayed with me only for 






88 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

two seasons; he could always obtain seryice and higli wages in his own 
district^ and so declined to serve at a distance firom it. My next best^ 
Sowdaugor, was a man who had many good qualities; he was insane y 
plucky ; he would go at anything^ take his elephant up to a tiger Or rhino- 
ceros in a foolishly reckless manner^ urge his elephant down most dangerotis 
declivities^ through any jungle or under any trees. He constantly put me 
into most unpleasant situations ; once he put me almost under a tiger. I 
had told him always to keep on the top of a nuUaVs bank^ and not to descend 
to the bottom^ thereby preventing me from getting a shot or knowing what 
the animals we were after might be doing. Nevertheless^ once when we 
started two^ if not three^ tigers at once from the carcase of a fresh-killed 
cow^ he charged down among them to the bottom of the nullah. I found 
my head just level with a large tiger^s feet ; I could have touched the tiger 
with a hog-spear^ but I had to hold on to the howdah with both hands ; the 
tiger sprung away luckily^ but the result was that we lost one if not two 
tigers, and only killed the one that was wounded by a shot fired when we 
first disturbed the animals. 

Sowdaugor was honest, kind to his elephant (which he never neglected)^ 
trustworthy, and truthful ; but he was almost a fool, had no common sense, 
and was most easily imposed on ; if not well looked after, other mahouts 
(and mahouts generally are a rascally set) made a tool of him. He was sin- 
gularly calm and quiet when waiting for a tiger, though he well knew it was 
a very fierce one. His elephant trusted him entirely ; she would put up her 
trunk and take hold of his hand, and having done this she was satisfied and 
steady with him, with another mahout she would be nervous. By thus 
keeping steady and quiet I was enabled always to shoot at the right moment 
and efiectively, and so neither Sowdaugor nor his elephant ever got hurt 
during the nine years he guided my best howdah-elephant. 

Elephants are always steadiest with tbeir own mahouts; but I constantly 
made Sowdaugor drive any elephant I might have my howdah upon when I 
considered the elephant's own mahout was not to be trusted for a scrimmage. 
It is a most satisfactory thing to have an elephant and a mahout you can 
thoroughly rely on in a fight with a tiger. 

However steady and courageous elephants may be in general, there are 
times and occasions when the best elephants become nervous and disgrace 
themselves by cowardice. If at the first finding of a fighting tiger the 
greater number of elephants, led probably by a bad elephant guided by a 
cowardly mahout, turn tail and bolt and show great fear, a staunch and 
usually reliable elephant may be infected with fear also, and suspecting some- 
thing more dreadful than usual, may decline to stand firm and for a time 
insist on keeping with his companions. Instances of this denteralization of 
my owD best elephants will be given among my tiger-shooting adventures. 

A good mahout should always keep his elephant in line, restricting his 



COST OP KEEPING ELEPHANTS. 87 

paces when the other elephants are not equally fast, and keeping his animal 
well up to the others if they should happen to go faster than his own usual 
beating-pace ; he should have a silent method of pointing out game to the 
gentleman shooting from the howdah above, and avoid all shouting and 
unnecessary noise. I used to guide Sowdaugor silently with the finger of my 
right hand applied gently behind his ear, in exactly the same way as I wished 
him to guide his elephant with his foot ; and when I wanted him to press on 
I pushed him gently exactly on the back of his head midway between his 
ears, and when I put my hand on his forehead he knew I meant him to stop. 
All this could be done without a word, when any noise might have spoilt an 
opportunity or attracted undesirable attention. 

A mahout should not stop his elephant abruptly when he sees a deer just 
in firont or when a partridge rises ; the effect of such stoppage is that the 
man in the howdah gets thrown forward and bumps against the front bar, 
and thus has the worst possible chance for a good shot. Probably the shooter 
will see the game as quickly as the mahout, as his point of view is some six 
feet higher. You should learn to shoot rather quickly and firom an elephant 
while moving with steady and regular steps ; the art is easily acquired. If 
necessary you can stand with your left knee touching the front of your 
howdah, and the calf of your right leg lightly touching the seat ; this will 
steady you quite sufficiently. Look keenly at the bird or exact place you 
desire to hit, often somewhat in front of the game itself, and the instant the 
properly fitting weapon covers this point pull the trigger: by practice I 
managed to shoot very nearly as well off a moving elephant as I could 
on foot. 

The cost of keeping an elephant varies with the seasons and with the 
districts where he may be kept. For about three months or a little more 
(that is, during and for a short time after the rains in the extensive dull-grass 
bheeb of Mymensing, Rung pore, and a few other districts) elephants may be 
turned loose, or only hobbled, to feed in these bheels day and night ; they 
revel in living in water about five feet deep, which bears thick matted crops 
of luxuriant coarse green grass. An elephant seems able to feed everlastingly. 
In such bheels he will get fat and round in a few weeks and improve greatly 
in appearance ; he requires no other food and hardly any attention. At this 
season if you can send your elephants to such bheels you may give some of 
your mahouts leave, and make the remainder of your establishment look after 
all the elephants ; and for these months your elephants should cost you no 
more than the pay of the reduced number of attendants. 

Such bheels abound in the Dacca district ; but in the Dacca pheelkhana, 
or elephant barrack, where all the Government Ehedda establishment may be 
located^ in addition to the animals kept by zemindars, planters, and sports- 
men, there may be from two hundred to three hundred elephants to be fed. 
The supplying this army of devouring animals has given rise to a regular 



88 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

trade^ and boats and grass-cutters supply the elephants with gnuis; and the 
owners of the boats pay a royalty to the zemindars from whose bheels they 
procure supplies. In Mymensing and parts of Tippera and Chittagong no 
such expenditure was necessary. 

In the dry season, and near most stations where you probably have to be 
located^ the cost of an elephant is much greater ; you will then have to give 
him a certain amount of rice, unhusked, and feed him on plantain-trees and 
branches of fig- and other trees, bamboo-leaves, and such eatable grass as may 
be procurable. 

When first I kept elephants I was persuaded to do as many others did — 
to feed them on husked rice, which was placed in little folded bags of plan- 
tain-stalks and placed in their mouths. This was humbug ; in my absence 
the mahouts used most of this rice for their own curries. Elephants no more 
require their food to be put in their mouths than horses do, nor do they 
require their rice to be husked ; unhusked rice is better for them and is 
about half the price. I used to have this rice put before them in any dry place, 
and they would eat every grain. In hard work an elephant may require 
twenty pounds of rice a day^ but most zemindarry elephants do without any. 
Oenerally plantain or banana trees may be got for nothing ; they only bear 
fruit once, and after that are useless : sometimes you will have to pay a 
little for them. Where proper trees abound the elephants should be fed on 
their branches. But some of the fig tribe are in the spring unwhcdesome : 
the elephants greedily devour these trees ; but at that season it is said that 
this food gives a disease of the eyes : it is certain that this disease is very 
common in May and June. 

When grass or plantains and suitable trees are not to be got it is hardly 
possible to keep elephants at all. Mahouts are not to be trusted with money 
when at a distance from their masters : hence it happened that many 
friends asked me to arrange at times for the keep of their elephants ; and 
thus I generally had some elephants at my command whose keep cost me 
nothing, and who greatly assisted in my hog-hunting and shooting under- 
takings. 

I do not think I ever paid more than thirty rupees per month for the keep 
of an elephant, and in June that cost was often reduced to ten rupees. 

Elephants gain and lose condition and flesh very rapidly. You may start 
on a month's shikar expedition with your elephants all round and sleek ; 
if they have been really hard worked they will probably return showing 
their ribs and very different in appearance. A few weeks' rest and a con- 
tinuance of abundant good food will soon restore them if their backs have 
not been injured : if large sores come on their backs they occasion pain and 
exhaust the system, in which case the elephant will continue to fall off; it 
should then be taken from all work and sent, if possible, to a duU-bheel, or 
to some place where he can be idle and feed all day long. 



DEATH OF « JABOONA." 89 

Elephants are delicate animals ; they often ail and often die after short 
illnesses. The male elephant belonging to the Nazir of Noakholly and two 
very valuable females of my own died while in my possession, though it is 
stated that the life of an elephant should average one hundred years. 

One forenoon I was sitting in court at NoakhoUy, when '' Teek khubber " 
(t. e. reliable information) was brought to me of a tiger in a place not far 
distant, which I knew well. I could not then leave office ; so I sent my 
jemmadar to my house, with orders to take the elephants which were handy 
and the howdah and guns to a village, and to order my horse to come to my 
ofiBce at about 3 p.m. Soon after that time I closed the court and cantered over 
to the place. The tiger turned out to be a leopard. I disposed of him in 
about half an hour, and immediately rode home as fast as I could, as a storm 
from the north-west, an ordinary " nor'-wester,'' was coming on. The storm 
passed ; it rained and hailed most heavily ; but the clouds cleared ofP, and in 
the lovely evening which followed, when all nature seemed refreshed, I rode 
out again to meet the returning elephants. I at once saw there was one 
wanting. On asking after '^ Jaboona,'^ I was told that in the middle of the 
thunderstorm she stopped, quietly lay down, and died almost immediately ; 
I rode on and saw her dead on the plain, and had to give orders for her 
instant burial. This was a great loss to me in those early days. 

Very often it will be reported to you that an elephant is eating earth. 
This is a sign that something is wrong : possibly it may be only worms ; 
these are supposed to be expelled by eating earth. Sometimes it means that 
fever is coming on. The pulse of a middle-aged elephant should beat about 
forty-five times to the minute ; if the pulsation increases to about seventy- 
five or eighty the animal has decided fever. You feel the pulse of the 
elephant at the lower back part of the ear : I have known elephants bled 
here, but I never had my own bled. As an aperient an ounce and a half of 
cotton-oil seed is given. For apparent gripes, opium, assafoetida, and ginger 
are given in equal quantities; the amount is generally about two rupees 
weight of each. 

Elephants are very subject to sore eyes. In May this is said to be brought 
on by eating branches of Ficus indieus and other fig-trees with milky sap in 
them. The simplest treatment is a lotion of two grains of sulphate of copper 
and one grain of sulphate of zinc to an ounce of water ; but if the cornea 
becomes opaque, it is best to touch it once with a stick of lunar caustic. 
This must be done cautiously. The elephant should be made to sit down, 
the trunk should be held on one side, and the eye touched. Most probably the 
animal, whose mahout should be on his neck, will instantly rise, and swinging 
round its trunk, strike your arm. This happened to me ; but the elephant 
closed its eyelids fast on the caustic and for a moment or two held on, so 
that when the caustic dropped the lids were over-cauterized. 

The following is a receipt for sores on the back which have been operated 



*> SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

upon : — ^Bnm some alum ; then rub down equal parts of this alum and blue- 
stone till smooth, with double weight of turpentine, and mix into an ointment 
with sweet oil and bees'-wax; this should be spread on the sore. This 
recipe keeps off flies ; but I found the sores often troublesome to heal, and 
generally found cold-water cloths and an occasional touching of the parts 
with caustic as good as any other treatment. No elephant of my own ever 
had a sore back. I rejected several brought for purchase because their backs 
were not quite sound; but numbers sent to me as baggage-elephants or 
beaters had sore backs. 



Letter No. 22. 

Accidents with male Elephants. Cutting tusks. — Building a howdah. Ohtam a pattern, 
try it, and improve on it. Should he strong and light^ with iron-work of the best 
description. Further particulan. — ^Ammunition-pouches. Seats. Chairs. Charbund. 

Many accidents having happened in my early experience with male elephants, 
I never bought any. At Mymensing there were two males had an antipathy 
against each other : one the instant it saw the other (on which was a howdah 
with a friend of mine in it) rushed at the elephant and knocked him clean 
down ; my friend and his attendant and all the guns were sent flying on to 
the ground ; luckily, no harm was done ; but deer-shooting, I saw a male 
elephant sit down on a native, trample on him, and kill him. When be- 
ginning a day's shooting at Zaroorgimge, on the confines of Tippera and 
Chittagong, I shot a barking-deer almost at the very commencement. A man 
got down to pick the deer up, when a male elephant ran at him and apparently 
caught him with his tusks and annihilated him ; luckily the thorny brushwood 
was thick ; the mahout rammed in the iron goad and took the elephant to a 
distance, when to our surprise the man came out of the thorns, much 
scratched, but not otherwise seriously hurt. It was a wonderful escape. As 
this was a well-known vicious elephant, we declined to allow him ever to 
come to our hunts in Tippera or Noakholly; he was a useful animal for 
carrying tents. 

These nervous badly-disposed elephants seem to get furiously excited when 
any animal is killed. Elephants are much disposed to kick when you are 
padding a dead tiger, and it is advisable for a European at such moments to 
keep at a distance from their legs. Very many elephants will not allow a 
dead tiger to be placed on their backs at all. 

The tusks of male elephants grow till they become obstructive. When too 
long, from a fourth to a third of the tusk is sawn ofi*; the animal makes no 



BUILDING A HOWDAH. 91 

opposition to this. I have seen at least a dozen tnsks thus shortened. 
Occasionally a female elephant breaks its own short tusks off. I hare portions 
of both male and female tusks beside me now. 

Much of your comfort in shooting from an elephant will depend on your 
howdah. There is great diversity in the make^ shape^ and weight of howdahs. 
Do not think of having one made by the carriage-makers of Calcutta ; they 
will build you a great heavy thing which will cost you half the price of a 
buggy, and which most likely you will never be able to keep even on the 
guddy : their ideas are taken from howdahs used by governor-generals and 
high potentates, intended to hold three or four people, and to be used on 
huge male elephants nine feet high. 

A good sporting howdah should be very strong, as light as is compatible 
with certain strength, and as small in length and breadth as may be con- 
venient and pleasant for yourself and one attendant, and fitted to hold four 
double-barrelled guns or rifles, and the ammunition and apparatus and appur- 
t^iances which experience shows are required in tiger-shooting. 

I found different kinds and shapes of howdahs in different parts of Eastern 
Bengal ; but I had received my first notion of what a good howdah should be 
from the judge of Rajshahye, who had been a noted sportsman from his first 
start in Bengal^ and had shot with all the best sportsmen of his day. I 
thought I improved on this pattern, but substantially I adhered to it in 
the many howdahs which I built for myself and friends. I always kept two 
— one for myself and one for a guest. These howdahs were much sought 
after, and were purchased the moment I determined to build a new one. It 
is absolutely necessary, if you wish to take advantage of all chances for 
good sport, whether you own elephants or not, that you should have a 
howdah and ropes, and I may add that a guddy and guddela are almost 
indispensable too. 

Your best plan will be to purchase a howdah as soon as you can from some 
well-known tiger-shooting sportsman ; after having shot in this for a season, 
you will know your requirements, and by comparing your own with other 
howdahs, you will have data for building an improved one on your own 
ideas. 

I give a drawing of my elephant and an old howdah from a photograph ; 
the details being exact, I have not attempted to alter them. The photograph 
was taken about 1864. The howdah is sufSciently good for you to take as a 
pattern to start by ; in reality it is an excellent howdah, and one from which 
I had capital sport. The guddy was not one of my shikarry howdah-guddies ; 
it was a baggage-guddy : a good howdah-guddy would have raised the 
howdah about five inches. The charbund on this particular howdah was 
peculiar, it is attached to two rings placed much too high up : this was an 
experiment which I did not approve of after practice ; there should be one 
strong ring for the charbund much lower on the howdah, and near where the 



^ SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

rings are now shown there should have been a square partition without cane- 
work^. You climb into the howdah by putting first your hand into this 
partition^ and then you step on it, and so climb over the upper bar. The 
portrait of the elephant is perfect ; my tent and the tree are well drawn. 

You will, when about to build a howdah^ secure the services of the best 
station carpenter and the best worker in iron you can procure, and you 
should have the howdah built at your own house and under your own eye. 
The wood must be chosen with great care; it must be sound and well- 
seasoned. The principal lower parts of the howdah must be strong, and 
weight may be here disregarded ; the superstructure must be of strong light 
wood. The iron-work connected with the fastening-on of the howdah must 
be of the very best well-tempered metal ; all rings, chains, and bars should be 
most carefully tested. If any of the iron- work connected with the fastenings 
should give way in a scrimmage with a fighting tiger, the consequences might 
be most disastrous : the turnover of a howdah on an ordinary occasion is 
serious enough, but if it should happen at a critical moment, loss of life might 
ensue, and, at the least, the whole party would be thrown into great confusion ; 
the other elephants would most probably take fright and misbehave, and the 
sportsmen would have to give up the contest with the tiger or rhinoceros, and 
attend to the safety of their prostrate comrade. 

There must be a bar of light iron in front of the howdah for you to hold 
on by ; this will have indentations to hold the ends of your guns when resting 
beside you : the bar should be covered with list, and this again with stout 
leather; it should be continued backwards on each side for about a foot, so 
as to make a convenient handle to help you in getting into the howdah. 
There should be no door and no projections, such as steps, outside your 
howdah ; steps are much in the way and of no use. There should be an open 
space in the cane-work, into which you can place your foot ; this is much 
better than a step. The support for your back when you are sitting on the 
seat should be of leather, or of girth-web attached to rings fastened to the 
side ; but the back of the attendant's seat should be made of the same stout 
strong wood as the rest of the howdah. In a difficulty you will cling to the 
front bar, your attendant to the side of the howdah behind you. 

For the purpose of carrying your ammunition, bullets, cartridges, ftxs., you 
should fasten a broad piece of leather across the whole front of the howdah, 
about ten inches broad; on this should be sewn four leather pouches, 
capacious enough to hold all you require : this I found to be far superior to 
the common wooden box with partitions, in which everything rattied and 
made a most objectionable noise. The seat should be strong, the centre 
cane-work like a chair : on each side of this cane-work there should be rests 
for the stocks of your guns ; these should be carefully made so as to prevent 
the guns wabbling about. Tlie ends of the muzzles of the weapons should rest 
* An attempt hss been made to alter this slightly in engraving from the photograph. 



BUILDING A HOWDAa 93 

in notches in the front bar; the mnzzles should not project far beyond 
the bar. Under your seat you should have a place to put things in^ such 
as gun-covers^ small game (say partridges)^ and odds and ends, such as 
biscuits^ oranges, or sandwiches ; a smaller open box should be under your 
attendant's boarded seat, which must be as narrow as will suffice for him to sit 
on. All the open spaces between the framework should be closed in with good 
cane-work made with Chinese cane ; native cane is not to be reconmiended. 

The height of the front bar from the bottom of the howdah depends on 
the height of the sportsman who is to shoot from it. A man of short 
stature cannot shoot over a high bar; a very tall man feels, when the 
elephant stops suddenly, that a low bar may throw him clean over the 
elephant's head ; you will easily arrange this for yourself. From the strong 
wooden bars on each side which form the base of the howdah depend two 
chains, connected with a bar a little more than a foot long. The temper and 
strength of this iron-work, and the security of its fastening to the wood- work, 
are the most important matters to be attended to in making a howdah. You 
should observe these chains and these fastenings in the howdahs of your 
friends most carefolly, and be extremely particular as to these points when 
building your own howdah. Besides these chief iron- work arrangements, 
there is another ring which is fixed to an upper wooden bar, for the rope 
called the '' charbimd,'' which is used to tighten the thick girth-ropes which 
go under the elephant's belly. The '' charbund '' is most useful, and without 
it it is almost impossible to keep the howdah straight and level, or on what 
sailors call '^ an even keel.'' The howdah of an experienced intelligent 
sportsman keeps even throughout a long day's shikar, to the comfort not 
only of the elephant, but of the whole party. The badly fitted howdah of 
the inexperienced sportsman on his borrowed zemindarry elephant and guddy 
is continually toppling half over; he constantly has to call on the whole 
line to stop and wait till his howdah is put straight again. Nothing conduces 
so much to spoil the pleasure of the most enjoyable beats as this having 
continually to stop and put howdahs straight. 

Some howdahs are boarded at the bottom for you to stand on : I am not 
partial to these ; they seem nice for the first hour or two, but your feet soon 
ache on the boards, and if with a badly made guddy they come down on the 
elephant's backbone they will give rise to sore backs and abscesses. 

At one side of the howdah inside there should be a loop to hold a hatchet 
or dao ; this is continually required for cutting branches, and occasionally 
for cutting off the heads of buffaloes and sambhur deer. If you use a 
muzzle-loader, there should be another loop through which to pass the 
loading-rod. 

With these instructions, after one season's experience with any howdah you 
may be able to get, I think you should be able to build a howdah exactly to 
suit yourself. A good howdah should last for many years, and always 



M SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

command a ready sale should you desire to part with it. I dare say I made a 
dozen during my Indian career^ and when their sale is taken into consideration 
I do not think they cost me a penny ; I built them entirely with regard^ 
first, to strength, next, to lightness, and, lastly, to personal comfort. 



Lbttbr No. 23. 

The Guddy. Should be stuifed with Solah. Keep a good one. Borrowed guddies very 
inferior. — Howdah-ropes. Guddela. Remarks on howdahs. Small howdah. — Char- 
jamehs. — ^The battery. Smooth bores as useful as rifles. As much as possible have all 
weapons of the same bore. Bullets. 

It is most important that all howdahs should be placed on properly made 
guddies, or cushions. For carrying baggage, natives, or dead game, a very 
inferior guddy may suffice ; but no elephant can carry the howdah even and 
properly, and no sportsman can enjoy a comfortable day's shooting, if his 
howdah rests on a bad guddy. The best guddies are made of solah, the 
pith-plant from which solah topees are made. The solah plant is abundant 
in all the zillahs where I kept elephants ; it should be gathered and your 
guddies made, and extra solah stacked for use, in the autumn. The guddy- 
case is made of the very stoutest and best gunny-bag cloth that you can 
obtain : you should spare no trouble to get this sacking really good ; inferior 
gunny cloth will scarcely stand the wear and tear of one month's shikar, and 
good sacking will last two seasons. The case will be made by the mahout 
according to the length and breadth of his elephant's back. It is then stuflfed 
with solah till it is as hard as a board. It is then worked and used and 
trod upon till the stuffing gets squeezed together, when fresh solah is 
crammed in till it will hold no more; it will then be nearly a foot in 
thickness on all the four edges, with an opening in the middle for the 
elephant's spinal ridge to play without pressure on it. Tins great clumsy- 
looking affair if made of solah is extremely light, and yet very stiff and 
rigid. 

Inferior guddies, and all that you will be able to procure from natives who 
lend their elephants, are made of thatching-grass ; this is stuffed into cases 
as the solah is, but it does not form nearly so good a stuffing, is very heavy^ 
fuUy ten times as heavy as solah, and imbibes and retains for a long time all 
water, whether this comes from rain or from crossing deep nullahs ; and if 
this grass stuffing remains wet for many nights, the gunny cloth case quickly 
rots. A guddy does not cost much; it is quite worth while to have your 
howdah-guddies made of the best possible description. 

The howdah is fastened on to the elephant above the guddy by three 



ELEPHANT-GEAR. 96 

ropes — one a thick long rope, almost a cable, which passes several times over 
the iron bar and under the belly, called the belly-rope, and two smaller ropes, 
the charbunds, which are used to tighten the thick belly-rope and keep it 
taut. Elephant-ropes are all made specially for the purpose ; the best are 
of cotton, and are rather expensive, a set costing about twenty rupees. A 
common set of hempen ropes made by the mahouts will not cost a tenth that 
cotton ropes do. Cotton ropes are extremely pliable and easily managed ; 
they can be fastened tighter and quicker. The hempen ropes are stiff and 
difficult to tighten, hurt the mahout's hands, and require tightening oftener 
than cotton. I always had my ropes made at Dacca of good cotton. When 
an elephant is lent he usually comes to you with a bad guddy ; you must 
almost always supply your own howdah and ropes, and you will find it pay, 
even if you have no elephant of your own,* to keep a good guddy too. 
Cotton charbund ropes, which are thin and easily got, may be used advan- 
tageously with hempen ropes. 

Between the belly-rope and the elephants belly you should place a wide 
piece of hide, half a large one or the whole of a small one. This is 
requisite to prevent the rope chafing the elephant's chest. 

Between the guddy and the elephant's back there should be placed the 
guddela. This is a quilt made of ** dosooti '* cloth, with thick strips of jute 
sewn into it; it is a kind of elephant saddle-cloth. Many sportsmen use 
another guddela between the top of the guddy and the howdah ; I always did^ 
it saved the gunny cloth and the guddy from chafing^ and was pleasant to 
stand upon. 

The above directions as to elephant-gear are made after mor^ than twenty 
years' practical experience. You will not be able, I think, to procure exactly 
the same gear as I used at once ; but I believe most of the tiger-shooting 
sportsmen in Eastern Bengal will agree with my notions, though, as a rule, I 
found the howdahs in Dacca and Pumeah heavier and larger than my own. 
Some had doors, which I found most highly objectionable; some had projecting 
steps, which were always causing mishaps. Some had fixed wooden chair- 
backs to the centre seats, against which I constantly hurt myself; some had 
one box fixed in front, some a series of small boxes hooked on to the front. 
In fact there was very great diversity. I have given you the opinion I 
formed after careful study, and I never met any one who had made more 
howdahs nor thought over them more than myself. 

It is possible to make quite a small howdah fitted for the sportsman alone, 
without any attendant ; this would be suitable for a small elephant where no 
ordinary howdah-elephant could be obtained. I only once met with one of 
these; it was made by a clever officer quartered at Chittagong, who had 
attached to it a sort of windlass and pin arrangement for fastening and 
tightening the belly-band. I am unable to say how this diminutive howdah 
and its dodges answered in actual shikar. 



96 SPORT IN EASTFBN BENGA-^ 

There is a thing called a ''charjameh/^ a kind of Irish jaunting-car 
arrangement^ on which two or more men sit back to back, which is fastened 
on to the guddy ; this is much used for travelling. A charjameh is difficult 
to shoot from^ except towards one particular direction^ and should never be 
used when a howdah can be obtained. 

Most men take four double-barrelled weapons in their howdahs, whatever 
kind of sport they may be working at. Of course men differ very greatly as 
to what weapons they should use ; some are partial to rifles for all distances. 
I knew a very distinguished Bengal sportsman who^ when he went tiger- 
shooting or^ as it was sometimes called, ball-shooting, took four of the best 
double-barrelled rifles he could get from England. The first thing he did 
was to knock away with a hammer all ''those blooming sights''; they 
interfered with his shooting, and with the plain rib of his rifle he said he 
could shoot confidently at any distance from five yards to two hundred. 
He was not a brilliant shot and cared nothing for smooth-bore or shooting 
with small shot ; but I dare say in his day he shot three tigers for one I did. 
Some men prefer to shoot only with smooth-bores and muzzle-loaders. The 
modem breech-loaders I suppose are now the favourites ; but it is allowed, I 
believe, that a smooth-bore breech-loader does not carry a ball as weU as the 
old copper cap muzzle-loader did. I will tell you what I did. For the first 
eleven years of my howdah-shooting I took in my howdah one gun by 
Dickson of Edinburgh, one Joe Manton which had been converted from a 
tube-gun, one gun by Sam Smith, formerly of Princes Street, London ; these 
were all smooth-bore muzzle-loaders of the same bore, twelves, and carried 
number 14 balls sewn into waxed cloth. My fourth weapon was a rifle by 
Westley Richards, a polygroove, which carried an ounce spherical ball. 

Experience in shooting from a howdah taught me that most tigers and 
sambhur and bears and all deer and leopards were shot by me within seventy 
or eighty yards distance, and that for such shooting a smooth-bore was as 
good as a rifle, and indeed, seeing that you could shoot so much quicker 
with a familiar ordinary gun, better than a rifle. It is next to impossible to 
'' draw a head '' properly with a rifle from the back of an elephant. The 
animal will move a little ; you must shoot somewhat quickly, that is you can- 
not take steady aim as when shooting on foot. For these reasons my old 
sporting friend knocked off his rifle-sights ; for the same reason I took three 
smooth-bores and only one rifle with me in the howdah. The rifle was for 
long shots beyond one hundred yards, and many and many a good long shot 
I made with a rifle from the howdah, and many and many a miss. 

From 1861, however, when I had several breech-loaders and had sold my 
first battery, my howdah armament was somewhat different ; I had a pair of 
muzzle-loading smooth-bores by Dickson, a breech-loading rifle by Sam 
Smith (a lovely weapon) , and a double smooth-bore breech-loader. Sometimes 
I used a breech-loader rifle by Smith and sometimes one by Daw ; and very 



^ trULLETS. 07 

often the Smith rifle was changed for a very favourite rifle by Daw, mentioned 
in earlier pages as the Daw* Jacob rifle. In muzzle-loaders it is very important 
to have all the guns in your howdah of one bore. If by accident you ram a 
number 12 bullet into a number 14 bore you will find it sticky and when in a 
scrimmage unutterable grief and vexation may ensue^ as perhaps I may 
relate when I come to tales about tiger-shooting on the banks of the Brahma- 
pootra river. 

Of course the exact battery to be taken out would depend on the nature 
of the sport to be expected. For tiger-shooting, and when shooting at 
insignificant game and feather was prohibited for the early part of the day 
at leasts I took the two muzzle-loading smooth-bores, a breech-loading rifle, 
and a breech-loading gun ; the latter to be loaded at first with ball as useful 
after the other six barrels should have been exploded, and for quick firing, if 
such should be required, after all the other weapons had been discharged. 

But for junglefowl-shooting in the Tippera hills I took three shot guns 
and one rifle, the latter in case a tiger, leopard, or large deer should be roused. 
I always had a supply of ball-cartridges and bullets sewn in cloth which 
could be utilized with smooth-bores after a few minutes^ loading operations. 
I always kept two hundred number 14 bullets in store, properly sewn into 
American cotton cloth. If preparing for a long expedition where ball-shooting 
was likely to be attended with a great expenditure of bullets, double the 
number were prepared. These bullets fitted all the smooth-bores and the 
cartridges for the smooth-bore breech-loaders ; but for the rifles, accurately- 
fitting bullets without cloth were used; and as it is probable that much 
information as to breech-loading weapons and the bullets proper for them 
has been gained by sportsmen since I left Bengal, it would be well if you 
obtained instructions and information on this point from the best of the 
Calcutta gun-makers. 

I never found it necessary to use bullets hardened with tin nor explosive 
shells ; with the exception of rhinoceros and bufialo, there is no animal 
which you will meet with in Eastern Bengal which requires a deadlier missile 
than an ordinary spherical bullet. My experiences with rhinoceroses are very 
limited ; they will be detailed under the head of rhinoceros-shooting. All 
my execution was done with a spherical bore. But in the matter of buffaloes 
I shall have much to say hereafter. An old wild buflalo bull is the most 
dangerous animal in Bengal to tackle either on foot or on horseback ; his 
hide is of the toughest : when possible I brought the Daw- Jacob rifle to play 
upon him with a peculiar bullet weighing about two ounces ; this was suffi- 
ciently effective. For bufialo-shooting you should certainly use very heavy 
bullets, and the nearer you get to the animal the better. 



H 



98 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 24. 

Tents. Boats. Cost of tents. — ^Leam necessary arrangements for a Shikar party. Much to 
be thought of; considerable difficulty in ^ving satisfaction. — ^Do not organize parties 
for too many sportsmen. Difficulties increase with numbers. Water must be thought 
of for the whole camp ; also supplies. 

The best sport in Bengal is obtained when the party camp out in tents at as 
great a distance from crowded civilized dwelling-places and native sportsmen 
and shikarries as you can get to^ and you must either own or procure somehow 
tents for yourself and your servants. 

The Government do indeed^ to a slight extent, profess to supply their 
officials with tents, and the Collector and Magistrate of each zillah had in my 
day a tent apiece and utilized old Government tents also ; but unless you 
happen to be the head of the office you will generally find that these tents 
are wanted by your senior officer, or if you go into the interior of your district 
on duty you will generally require the limited accommodation you get from the 
Government tents for official purposes, documents and records, and as a place 
where the public have a right of access to. You will find it most convenient 
and almost indispensable to have a separate tent of your own ; this you can 
keep to yourself and send anywhere at any time. The best economy is to 
purchase a new proper tent at once ; it should last all your time, and if taken 
care of be worth a considerable sum when you retire. 

At Noakholly most of my shikar was got at with the aid of boats. In the 
river districts boats are nearly as useful as tents ; but in most districts and 
in the best shooting season, when small streams are dry, tents are, as I said, 
indispensable. A single-poled tent is the most common, but by no means 
the most commodious kind. A Swiss cottage tent has much more room in 
it for the sahib than a single-poled tent ; there is less convenience for servants, 
who generally live in the passage between the walls or kunats of a single- 
poled tent. The proper comfortable way of doing matters is to have a Swiss 
tent and two sepoys' pals, one for cooking and mess purposes and one for your 
servants; these are light and cheap and most useful. At times I have 
dispensed with the larger tent entirely, and lived for two or three days in one 
pal, giving the other to my servants. 

In fine weather the servants can do tolerably without tents. Two guddies 
placed against each other, or a line of guddies placed so as to make a long 
roof-like shelter, make a very fair sleeping-place for servants and natives as a 
makeshift. Two fair-sized elephants will carry a Swiss tent and two pals and 
a deal of camp furniture easily. The cost of a Swiss tent varies, I believe, 
from Bs. 300 to 450. It is a great comfort and convenience to have your 
own private tentage arrangements. 



HOW TO BiANAGE A SPORTINa EXPEDITION. 99 

The proper management of a sporting expedition which is to take place at 
a distance firom the station and to last for three or four days requires expe- 
rience and, if possible, knowledge of the country. As a young inexperienced 
sportsman you will probably be a guest or be asked to take part as a grifE in 
a party managed by others ; and on such occasions you will find that you 
have a very great deal to leam^ and that a properly conducted party entails 
on the person who undertakes to superintend it much labour and trouble for 
weeks probably before the actual sport begins. In addition to the actual 
sport, the manager will have to consider how the sportsmen are to get to the 
camp ; how they are to be accommodated with sleeping-room ; what general 
mess arrangements are necessary ; how many ordinary servants will accom- 
pany the party ; how many horses and syces, how many elephants, mahouts^ 
and mates ; how corn, rice, food, firing, drinking-water, bathing-water are to 
be provided ; how vegetables and bread are to be obtained ; what proportion 
of these requirements he, as manager, is to be responsible for, and what 
peculiar arrangements each member of the party may require for himself. 
For instance, one man may be a teetotaller, and another decline to drink beer 
and be satisfied only with claret ; some men dislike whisky, and some cannot 
be happy without soda-water ; some members may of necessity have to study 
the strictest economy, and to others a little more or less expenditure may 
make no difference. On the successful administration of such matters as 
these the comfort and satisfaction requisite to ensure agreeable success at a 
shikar party very greatly depend. If to unsuccessful sport discomfort and 
difficulty at camp should be added^ the whole pleasure of the trip becomes 
changed to disgust, and nothing but experience and foresight and painstaking 
arrangement beforehand will prevent possible failure and disappointment. 
So study these matters as soon as you can ; for if you are to be a distin- 
guished sportsman you will have ere long to take the command yourself. 
Very likely you know or may hear of that notable party who, on meeting 
at their camp after a long journey, were met by their servants (who knew 
every thing and had acted for them) with the report that there was 
plenty of game, and every thing had arrived safely, and all was " bhot atcha,'' 
but accidentally the powder had been left behind I The manager of course, 
if there is one, should remember every thing ; but it is as well that you 
should see after your own interests too yourself^ even when not manager. 

A party consisting of a moderate number of sportsmen, servants, elephants, 
and horses may be easily managed where an expedition on an extended 
scale becomes a matter of much difficulty ; for instance, I have often had 
splendid sport at places with a moderate-sized party where every single 
thing, drinking-water for Europeans included, had to be brought once for 
all from headquarters, where twelve elephants and their attendants could only 
with difficulty find food and shelter, and where a proper encampment and enter- 
tainment for a large party, consisting, say, of from eight to ten gentlemen, 

h2 



r4r::) 



100 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

requiring twenty-five elephants and every thing in the same proportion, could 
not possibly have met together for four days' sport at all. At Cbur Siddhee^ 
and when shooting in the Backergunge Soonderbund, near the shore of the 
Bay of Bengal, good fresh drinking-water was not to be got ; every drop had 
to be brought from headquarters. And again and again^ when shooting 
with only twelve elephants, camp has had to be shifted because there was not 
sufficient forage for this number of elephants after three days' consumption. 
Hence it becomes almost impossible in many places, most excellent for sport, 
to organize an expedition for a large number of sportsmen requiring the 
assistance of a corresponding proportion of elephants^ horses^ and atten- 
dants. 

For a lai^e hog-hunting party, where from six to a dozen men may be 
expected to join, or for a shooting-expedition for miscellaneous sport, where 
a general holiday-gathering from headquarters may be expected^ a well-known 
meet, where a neighbouring bazaar affords convenience for natives to obtain 
food and sleeping-room and milk for Europeans, where rice and plantain- 
trees for elephants are in plenty, and to which a daily dawk-messenger from 
the station may, in the course of an eight hours' walk, bring letters, papers^ 
bread, butter, and vegetables, should be selected ; and for such a meet the 
station folk would be full of experience of past gatherings. But for a distant 
or a new country, or for one where supplies may be scarce and where the 
experience of former encampments may not be obtainable, you should 
restrict the number of the sporting party to four or less. 

Whenever I organized a party for howdah-shooting I never asked more 
than three companions ; sometimes I had two, very often only one. Perhaps 
I was as often alone as accompanied by any other sportsman. Generally the 
large hog-hunting parties at which I attended were got up by others ; the 
smaller ones in NoakhoUy and Mymeusing I managed myself. 

The encampment must always be pitched near water. In Tippera, Chitta- 
gong, and Noakholly there are beautiful large tanks, surrounded with high 
embankments and covered with thick jungle, often well stocked with jungle- 
fowl, barking-deer, and a few leopards, and ornamented with old picturesque 
trees. In other zillahs, especially in the churs and hog-hunting districts^ 
the camp used to be pitched on the side of small natural lakes, supplied by 
the overflow of the Ganges and other large streams, where the exit of water 
was prevented by natural or artificial mud embankments. Such extensive 
areas of water induced colonies of fishermen to locate themselves on their 
banks. A good supply of fish and plenty of water make commissariat 
arrangements easy for the manager of a shikar party, and the native servants 
remain contented in such spots, where they can bathe and buy fish and 
prawns at half the usual cost, and where fishing-canoes take them to the 
neighbouring baths or bazaar-markets ; whereas in solitary dry spots diffi- 
culties and grumblings become the rule. 



DOORQA-POOJAH HOLIDAYS. 101 



Letter No. 25. 

Sbootmg in the Doorga-Poojah holidays. These holidays taken by all men. Boats 
generally used at such times ; tents in drier seasons. — Bullocksi carts, and carriage. — 
Coyer your howdahs. — ^Precautions against storms. — Horses to be stabled in huts. — Go 
round the camp before going to bed. — Objections to large parties. 

The Doorga-Poojah and Dusserah holidays^ coming in September and 
October^ are universal native holidays. The civil and revenue courts are shut 
for at least three weeks^ and the criminal courts may be said to be scarcely 
open; trade and business of all kinds in large towns, such as Calcutta, 
cease for a time ; every body. Christian and Pagan, takes a holiday or pays 
visits or entertains visitors. Men with a sporting turn of mind arrange for 
shooting-expeditions. The weather is still uncomfortably hot and damp ; 
all vegetation and herbage is at its rankest, and all jungles are dense with 
grass, leaves, and weeds, and swarming with ants and insects driven from the 
soil by the accumulated waters of three months of incessant rain. Hog- 
hunting is only to be got in a few high places, such as exist in only one or 
two zillalis. Few men have ridden hogs in October. Snipe-shooting is 
nearly at its best, and it is at this season that the sport finds its most 
numerous devotees ; and I have often worked the snipe-shooting very hard 
at such times. But generally, and whenever I possibly could, I managed to 
get up some tiger-shooting or otherwise an expedition for general shooting at 
horn, fur, and feather as best I could. 

For three seasons I shot tigers in the islands of the Megna in these 
holidays. Once I joined a hog-hunting party not far from Moorshedabad ; 
six or seven times I worked up the miscellaneous sport in the districts of 
Mymensing and Dacca ; once I spent these holidays on the alluvial plains of 
the Pumeah district ; twice I substituted a visit to the great Sonapore fair 
in Tirhoot instead of the usual sport. This fair is a grand gathering for 
society, racing, and fun, which no European should omit to go to during his 
Indian exile. In spite of the fact that this is almost the worst season for 
sport, when the jungles are unbumt, green, and unbeatable, when the waters 
have to some extent subsided, and the high places to which game was forced 
to resort when the rivers were at their fullest have again been abandoned, 
and access to unlimited grassy plains has again been obtained, yet sportsmen, 
and especially business men and officials, who now are certain of some leisure, 
are bound to make the best of the opportunity ; and so, in my case at any 
rate, a great deal in the way of sport was attempted, and pretty generally 
the expeditions were successful. 

At such seasons most of my sport took place not far from rivers. We lived 
in boats; the elephants were located close to our anchorages. We could 



102 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

shoot two or three days at one spot, then order the whole fleet to go to 
another place six or eight hours' row or sail distant, and shoot to such place 
on the elephants. 

Boats are most convenient for shikar expeditions. One boat can generally 
accommodate two or three Englishmen and a large number of servants ; all 
provisions for Europeans and natives can be taken on board and fresh supplies 
obtained from time to time. A separate cook-boat makes a most sufficient 
kitchen. The best cabin can be used as a mess-room ; after sport is over and 
dinner disposed of the four sportsmen can play a rubber of whist and enjoy 
themselves as well as in a tent when ground and jungles are drier and more 
healthy. 

I used what were called *' coss-boats.^' These are boats built in the 
Noakholly district, especially adapted to withstand the storms of the M^na. 
They had from eight to ten oarsmen and one steerer. They contained two 
good cabins, and a cupboard sort of place used as a bath-room. If I was on 
a solitary expedition my man cooked for me on board ; if there were three or 
four of us, and we were not travelling on the broadest and worst part of the 
Megna, we had a separate cook-boat. Servants, baggage, and all such things 
could be stowed away in these coss-boats. Friends shooting with me from 
districts bordering the Ganges generally had boats called '' beauleahs : '' 
these were more commodious than coss-boats, but not nearly so fast, and 
were not fitted for wide stormy waters. 

In the winter and spring, when shooting in more inland and dry countries, 
tents, howdahs, provisions, gun-cases, ammunition, and all requirements 
must be sent to camp packed partly on elephants and partly on bullock- 
carts. Carts manage to go nearly straight across coimtry; a sufficiently good 
track, it can seldom be called a road, can generally be made available. If 
the carts and elephants get three days' start they will cover a distance sufficient 
to require several relays of horses if you ride or drive across country. Many 
gentlemen prefer going to distant camps in palkees and at night. 

When sending a howdah on an elephant a long distance it is advisable to 
have a canvas howdah-cover ; this will keep every thing under it dry. If 
the guns are to be sent in the howdah they should have waterproof cases ; any 
of the heavy storms so common in March make sad havoc with valuable 
batteries and all the careful adjustments of a howdah if they are unprotected. 
The elephants often reach camp at dark, and next morning very early sport 
should recommence. If every thing has to be dried and cleaned and made 
as spick and span as it ought to be, you and your servants will have hard work 
in the dark with lights blowing out continually and a raging north-west wind 
threatening to blow down the tents. 

When a storm is expected, and they often occur evening after evening 
in spring in Eastern Bengal, a trench should be dug round each tent to carry 
off the water and prevent it flowing into the interior ; the earth from this 



LOOK ROUND CAMP AT NIGHT. 108 

small trench should be made into a ridge against the outer wall of the tent, 
and the tent-pegs should be bushed if the pegs are not driven deeply into 
good firm-holding soil. If the tent should be blown down, or pools of water 
form in its centre, you will be uncomfortable and bothered ; but if proper 
precautions are taken, you will find the morning after a nor'-wester a delicious 
change. 

When hog-hunting, I advise that the horses should be put into native huts ; 
it guards them against chills and strokes of the wind, and even against 
attacks of '' going in the loins." In the healthy districts horses are often 
tethered under trees. I have constantly had mine so secured ; but they may 
get wet or loose : I prefer huts. Always in the colder months see that your 
horses are well clothed at night, and give your syces and grass-cutters 
blankets for themselves, or the chances are that when about 9.30 p.m. you 
go, as you should always go, to see that horses and elephants are all right, 
you will find your syces asleep, wrapped in the blankets that should have 
been on your horse, who remains shivering in the cold. I do not think a 
season ever passed in which I did not find this happen to some of the 
sportsmen at our winter meets. 

After a long and hard day^s sport, when men, horses, and elephants, 
exhausted and weary, were taking their well-deserved sleep, I have strolled 
often firom the white shining tents in the still calm moonlight to the cleared 
space under the fig-trees, and gazed on the horses lying half hidden in the 
rice-straw litter, with the syces snoring beside them, both protected by the 
thick black blanket, and then walked a little further and looked on the 
groups of native attendants closely crowded together under some temporary 
screen, hardly sufBcient to keep ofE the dew and the glare of the moon. 
Beyond, one would see the huge elephants, each on its side, with the flat 
soles of its feet at right angles to the ground, a jackal most likely stealing 
away at my approach, and an owl shrieking from some not very distant 
jungle ; and I have wished that I were an artist, and could paint such a 
characteristic scene to hang up at home. You will find it answer to look 
round the camp at night, and see that all is well before you yourself turn in. 

I have at times joined in large parties got up by general subscription ; but 
I am not partial to these. They are composed generally of rather a miscella- 
neous society, and unless one of the number possesses an undisputed right to 
control the others, who probably pay just the same amount of subscription, 
unpleasantness may arise. I have known individuals, by no means the most 
popular of the members, nor the best sportsmen, nor the best shots, claim 
and insist on taking up certain positions in the line or stations with reference 
to the jungle, in a greedy and selfish manner, so as to ensure for themselves 
better chances than the others for lucky shots; and afterwards boast of their 
success and represent better men as inferior sportsmen. At times less pushing 
individuals feel themselves aggrieved and are disgusted at such conduct. It 






104 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

is better that one of the party should be elected captain^ and entrusted with 
supreme command. For my own part I generally avoided these large parties, 
being either a guest or subscriber by kindness and sufferance at a small party 
entirely under the management of my entertainer or inviter, or manager 
or host myself, when I could choose my two or three companions, and knew 
that a gentlemanly, unselfish, and sportsmanlike spirit would influence each 
and all. But at the same time you may not be able to afford to do things 
with a high hand ; and if a good country is to be beaten up by a local party 
you cannot interfere with it, and it may be necessary for you to join such an 
expedition and make the best of the circumstances, or you may lose the 
sport altogether. In all systematically pursued Bengal sport, snipe-shooting 
excepted, cost and expenditure are elements that demand great, I might 
almost say the greatest, consideration. A very poor man indeed can hardly 
enjoy good hog-hunting or tiger-shooting at his own cost, except occasionally 
and accidentally. 



Letter No. 26. 

Visits to Zemindars and Planters. Objections to such Tisits. — ^Be careful to keep on good 
terms with Landholders. Consequences of inconsiderate treatment of a native landlord. — 
Travel at night and save time. — River travelling. — Cooking arrangements. CharcoaL 
Drinking-water. — Blacksmith and Bheesty. 

I HATE at times been asked to avail myself of the shelter and conveniences 
supplied at the long-established residences of rich and powerful native 
zemindars and landlords, or at the houses and factories of indigo-planters or 
European agents. I seldom availed myself of these invitations, and generally 
encamped at a distance, and got these gentlemen, if possible, to visit me and 
partake of my hospitality. I always had the greatest aversion to sponging 
on landed proprietors. Ever since Lord Clive's time the members of the 
Bengal Civil Service have been prohibited by covenant from receiving gifts 
or douceurs from the natives ; and it has always been the proud boast of the 
Haileybury College men that the service of which they were members had 
been noted as the most pure-handed and incorrupt that had ever administered 
a Government for a nation ; and doubtless the present members of the Indian 
Civil Service strive to deserve the same reputation ; but the conduct of the 
subordinate native officials, such as amlah, mohurrers, clerks, vakeels, &c., 
has in no way resembled that of their covenanted superiors in these respects. 
The visit of a junior inexperienced Government official, with his office and 
official attendants, to the immediate vicinity of the most influential landholder 



KEEP ON GOOD TERMS WITH LANDLORDS. 105 

of the neighbourhood acts as a heavy fine. The zemindar probably has to 
fee each attendant and subordinate oflScer highly, otherwise he suffers in 
innumerable petty matters as well as in general native estimation. As a 
young member of an honourable service you are bound, as much as lies in 
your power, to avoid causing such inflictions as these. This is not exactly 
a sporting subject, so I wilL not enlarge upon it further than by the above 
reference. 

It is true that the great resident influential landlords, to whom the jungles 
that you beat belong, and the planters, who are far more intimate with the 
agricultural population than the Government officials, who usually reside at 
the largest towns in the district, must know a great deal more about the 
game and sport in their own neighbourhood than you can at a first visit, and 
have it in their power to assist you, and also most easily to thwart and check 
all information, and so interfere greatly with your success. It should be 
your aim to obtain the advantage of all their knowledge and assistance 
without putting them to expense and inconvenience. If you are popular, 
and they observe that you are favourable to their interests and do your best 
to prevent imposition and extortion, you will be welcome, and the chief 
residents will do all in their power to assist you. If, on the other hand, you 
take as much out of these persons as you can, and allow your attendants to 
do the same, your visits will be regarded as a curse, and sport as an induce- 
ment for such visits will be fatally frustrated. 

I know an instance where a fine hospitable Brahmin zemindar, who always 
endeavoured to show the best sport and offered great hospitality to well- 
behaved European officials who treated him well, had his kindness abused 
by an ill-conditioned subaltern, who lived at his expense, and worked his 
elephants and servants cruelly and without recompense to such an extent, 
that the zemindar turned all his dependants nearly into shikarries and made 
them shoot constantly, giving them all his elephants to beat and supplying 
ammunition ; and in two years one of the best sporting districts I ever knew 
was quite ruined and, for as long as my knowledge of it lasted, rendered not 
worth visiting at all. On finding this splendid country devoid of game, I 
carefully questioned my friend the Brahmin as to the reason; and he gave it 
me ; and I knew it was true. He offered to do his best to get up sport again 
for me if I desired it ; but I was in a high Government situation at the time, 
and it would not have been correct for me to have entered into any such 
agreement. Twenty years earlier, in the remote district of Noakholly, when 
newspaper correspondents were less venomous and mischievous, I might have 
tried, had I been likely to have remained long in those parts, to have got up 
sport again by preservation. 

I obtained many a day's sport, especially after wildfowl, and occasional 
howdah-shooting by boat-travelling at night. After office closed, say at 5 
P.M., all arrangements having been carefully made beforehand, and after 



106 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. • 

partaking of an early dinner, I ased to embark on a ooss-boat, often from 
my house, which was near the river, and sometimes after a drive or a ride to 
where the boat might be ; at once the rowers were called on to do their best 
and to continue working hard all night, till the rendezvous was reached. But 
the rate of boat-travelling varies greatly and has to be considered. With the 
tide, or down a fairly rapid stream, a rate of six miles an hour or so may be 
maintained for twelve or fourteen hours, and I very constantly managed from 
forty to fifty miles between leaving office and the time for commencing sport 
next day. Moonlight and other things make considerable difference ; wind 
also may be useful or hindering. Against stream and tide progress is very 
different. Cos8-boat8,and indeed most boats, proceed up-stream by " gooning ;'' 
that is, the mast is erected, a rope or ropes are stretched from the mast-head 
and attached to pieces of stout bamboo, these are held over the shoulders of 
the rowers walking on the shore, and with this peculiar arrangement the boat 
is towed along. Continual stoppages are the rule when gooning at night, 
especially if it is dark. The crossing of streams running into the river you 
are travelling along occasions great delay. All craft not travelling at night 
are moored to the river-bank or in some crevice, and you have to pass the 
gooning-rope over the masts of these boats. Shallows and all manner of 
obstacles are not easily avoided on dark nights ; and with one drawback and 
another your progress against wind, tide, or stream seldom exceeds two and a 
half miles of waterway. If the river winds about much you will not find 
yourself above fifteen or twenty miles from your starting-place when the time 
for sport arrives : there is no help for this ; you must make the best of 
streams and the winds, and daylight and moonlight, and take all these con- 
tingencies into consideration when laying out your plans. 

Sometimes you may take advantage of a river-steamer, and by sending 
your boat ahead a day before it can meet you at some fitting point on the 
river. 

You can sleep and eat comfortably in these boats, and one Mahommedan 
servant should suffice for all your table requirements. No delay on account 
of servants should be permitted. No cook-boats should be taken when time 
is a great object. The cook-boat is always behind and a great source of 
delay ; I soon found out their disadvantages and gave them up. 

The following is the usual arrangement for providing fireplaces for cooking, 
and it is in invariable use amongst all sportsmen in camps as well as on boats. 
An ordinary wooden case, as sold with every dozen of claret, has its top and 
one long side removed ; it is then filled with well-prepared clay. The cook 
digs out with his hands two holes for receipt of cinders and to allow draught, 
and above these holes a little common iron grating, worth about sixpence, is 
fixed. The fuel is charcoal, of which you must always, on all shikar ex- 
peditions, take a good supply. With this cooking arrangement any khitmut- 
gar should be able to give you all you want on a boat, and with two or three 



PROVISIONS FOR AN EXPEDITION. 107 

sncli boxes a regular cook will supply a handsome entertainment of soup^ 
fish, joint, game, vegetables, and sweets for a party of four or five. If you 
are arranging for a long expedition, say for a fortnight's tiger-shooting, you 
must think of the charcoal, for it is bulky to carry. If in the country you 
are about to beat proper wood is abundant, the servants can make charcoal 
every four or five days. Generally you can either make or have it brought 
to your camp, but you cannot do without it. 

Good water for drinking is an absolute necessity, inferior water induces 
dysentery and cholera. If there is tolerably good water near your encamp- 
ment, or in the river on which your boat is, a good English filter may suffice. 
A makeshift may be made by putting three kulsees or ghurrahs, as these 
common earthem jars are called, one above the other, supported by three 
bamboos tied together ; the two upper pots have small holes, and being filled 
with charcoal and sand, water is passed through and comes into the bottom 
jar fairly filtered. The water in many of the tidal rivers in Eastern Bengal 
is brackish, and can never be made fit for drinking purposes. In this case 
you must take a supply in large barrels and earthem jars, and fill them as 
opportunities offer when you pass places where wholesome water can be 
procured. The proper supply of wholesome water is a matter never to be lost 
sight of in arranging shikar parties. 

To an old Indian it seems hardly necessary to tell even a tyro that a good 
supply of ordinary fowls must be taken in suitable bamboo cages on all 
occasions. Meat will not keep ; but if you have a large party a smaU sheep 
or two can be taken alive and killed after a day or two. Venison, game, and 
wildfowl of course will be taken into account when calculatingyour mess supply. 
If you are stationed near the railway you will be able to hunt and shoot at 
great distances from home. On a pinch I have slept and had my meals for 
two nights and more in a closed railway luggage-van ; the little camp bed 
and camp table &c. can be easily arranged in such a van. 

Military officers, if you are at a station where troops are located, generally 
have a command of tentage ; they are accustomed to frequent long marches, 
and any sporting friends in the regiment might assist you greatly in forming 
your temporary encampments. 

If you include hog-hunting in any shikar expedition for more than two 
days, it is very advisable to take a blacksmith or nalbund, and a proper supply 
of shoes and nails. I have suffered from the want of forethought in this 
particular. A bheesty, or water-carrier, is a most useful servant to take with 
you on an expedition. The larger your party the more the services of such a 
man are valued ; but if you find any difficulty, and that the number of servants 
must be kept as small as possible, you can manage without a bheesty. 

VHien using boats, or when the tents are pitched near a tank, there will be 
no difficulty in enjoying a swim, either in the early morning or after the 
day's sport is over. 



108 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 27. 

Preparation of skulla and skins. — Preservatives. Arsenic. Alum. — Carry a compass. — 
Locate Elephants sometimes at a distance from camp, and ride to and fro. — Rice may be 
used as food for horses occasionally. — Remarks on the cost of Shikar. — At first you must 
moderate expenditm'e. Usual social amusements must be given up. 

Most sportsmen like to preserve the skulls of good hogs^ the heads of fine 
horned deer^ and the skins of tigers^ leopards^ &c., so I ought to tell you my 
experience in these particulars. Skulls are easiest cleaned by having all the 
flesh cut away first with a knife^ and the brains cleared out as much as 
possible^ and then by being sunk in cold water : after a time the remaining 
flesh decays and is easily got rid of^ and the skull may then be blanched in 
the sun till all bad smells have disappeared. Care must be taken that jackals 
and beasts of the field and birds of the air do not make away with the bones. 

The above plan answers well for deer^s heads and homs^ save that it often 
whitens the horns too much^ but for hogs and camivora it loosens all the 
front teeth and tusks. These may be fixed in by plaster of Paris and other 
fixing materials ; but I never could obtain them^ so for hogs^ heads and tigers' 
heads I had all flesh scraped ofi^^ as much as possible^ inside and out, except 
that of the gums. If the flesh of the gums can be got to dry on the bone^ it 
will hold the teeth firmly, or nearly firm, long enough to enable you to get 
the heads to a professional taxidermist. I have several heads beside me now 
which have been dried this way. Some have been smoked over fires. None 
of these plans are wholly satisfactory ; I can tell you of no better, and I 
suppose T dried and prepared a thousand heads. I have placed them in ant- 
hills and hung them in trees ; but I know no way of easily and quickly 
preserving skulls and heads without a great deal of trouble so as to keep the 
bones white and the teeth firm in the jaws. 

A tiger-skin is easily preserved if you cut off the head and the claws and 
treat them separately. To prepare a tiger's head for subsequent stuffing, so 
as to look really well in a glass case, you must turn over the skin and separate 
it entirely from all the bones except the jaws. Every particle of flesh must 
be removed, and the eyes and the brains extracted ; this is a very tedious 
and troublesome job. All parts of the head and bones, inside and out, must 
be thoroughly and completely treated with strong arsenical soap, and the 
shape of the head re-formed as well as you can with tow, and bound round 
with thread. If this is done with tolerable success, the head can be sent to 
London, and Ward or any taxidermist will make a good job for you^ asking 
in return, I found, a ten-pound note. 

If you leave the head and paws on, they give twice as much trouble as the 
rest of the skin ; but by cleaning them as much as possible, and continually 



PRESERVATIVES. 109 

rubbing in arsenical soap^ they can be secured from decay. A flat skin^ with- 
out head or claws^ can be easily cured^ and afterwards surrounded and lined 
with cloth or bear's fur^ and made into a carriage or other rug. 

Furriers^ and those who finally preserve skins^ object to arsenical soap^ 
because it makes the skin hard and gives them extra trouble. They recom- 
mend salt and alum ; but I found that all the skins I treated with alum soon 
rotted in the damp climate of Eastern Bengal. I lost some beautiful skins* 
Any leather with alum in it will get damp and then rot in the rains^ so I took 
to strong arsenical soap, which never failed me. It is easily made. Take 
half a pound of white arsenic, which can be procured all over Bengal, put it 
into a saucepan with a pound of common Bengalee soap and a little cam- 
phor, heat and well mix, and pour into a three-pound jam-pot. This should 
be rubbed or brushed well into the skin with tow or a stiff brush. One good 
dressing is sufficient for a skin, but the head and feet require several appli- 
cations of the lather. The skin should be carefully pegged out in the sun at 
first and at every opportunity till quite dry ; for this purpose it is conve- 
nient to prepare about a hundred little bamboo pegs or skewers before you 
start on a tiger-slaying expedition. 

If you are an ornithologist, and desire to preserve bird-skins for a collection 
or to be put into cases, you will know the value of arsenical soap. I was 
extremely fond of ornithology and made collections for others. I took pains 
to secure birds for Jerdon and Hume, the great Indian ornithologists ; but 
after I lost the joint of my thumb I was unable to skin birds. Sometimes I 
obtained the aid of a taught taxidermist. With trouble you can find out such 
men in Calcutta, or with the aid of the officers of the Asiatic Society's Museum, 
or you may have a young and promising Mahommedan taught to preserve 
birds and skins, and retain him as a general servant. 

I have been told that it is a good plan to put skins into a barrel of liquid 
made of alum and salt and other preservative drugs, coop them up, and send 
them off to England. I dare say the plan would answer ; but in Bengal barrels 
and coopers are not to be got, and the carriage of large barrels would add to 
the difficulties, which you will find quite sufficient when you have to send 
tents and provisions, servants and horses, howdahs and batteries for a fort- 
night's shikar to jungles in the interior, where there are no roads or navi- 
gable streams. 

Hard-working Indian sportsmen who work all the ground they can get at, 
and go long distances on horseback to the places where their elephants are to 
begin to beat, have usually a good eye for country, and after going a journey 
once, are able to find their way over the same country again. Although such 
men can usually tell the points of the compass from the sun, yet I found it 
best to carry a pocket compass, and I always did so. In a fresh country I 
continually took bearings, and found the practice most useful. Very often, 
when at a long distance from camp, I have come upon game just before sun- 



110 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

set^ and when the day's sport ended found myself obliged to go home in the 
dark. Boads^ guide-posts, or natives to speidc to are not to be found. Any 
natives seeing or hearing of the approach of a body of men with elephants and 
horses would probably hide and keep silent. You must find your own way, and 
if the country is new to you and your mahouts, a compass is invaluable. Fogs, 
too, are exceedingly common in Eastern Bengal, and without a compass I do 
not know how you could manage ten miles of the homeward journey in a 
thick fog. 

You ought to be able to work all the good country within a radius of eight 
or ten miles from your encampment ; and to do this properly you must occa- 
sionally let the elephants, howdahs, &c. remain in some village close to the 
sporting-ground for the night. You should shoot up to this place, have your 
horses to meet you there, and ride back to camp. Early the next morning 
the elephants will get their food, and remain feeding till wanted. Your 
howdah-attendant, the mahouts, mates, &c. will remain at the village and get 
their early meal, and by the time you have had your own breakfast and ridden 
to the elephants all should be ready for the day's sport. You can then arrange 
either to shoot homewards and return on the elephants, or you can have your 
horses kept at any appointed place to take you back to camp. Arrangements 
of this sort save great loss of time, and enable you to beat much larger areas 
than when you start with the elephants from camp and have to be back again 
at the encampment before dark. To save time and trouble, if you kill a tiger, 
or even two, or any large deer that you want to send to camp, it is convenient 
to place the game on an elephant and send it to camp at once. In hot wea- 
ther, if a tiger is not skinned within a few hours, all the hair may come off 
and the skin be useless. 

If your stock of grain and oats gets short, and proper provender for the 
horses is unprocurable, you may, without fear, mix what you have with un- 
husked rice, and so double your store. Rice is always to be got, and 
horses are not averse to it. In anticipation of this contingency, I gave 
all my horses a little rice all the year round, and they were fond of it. 

In my last letters I have been giving you the benefit of my experience for 
many years ; but you must not think that I commenced my Eastern-Bengal 
shikar in the complete and finished style which I have referred to as that 
which ought to be followed if possible. There is one most important item to 
be considered, viz. expenditure. My income and pay at first were small, as 
are those of most young men who go to Bengal to make, not to spend, money. 
You must cut your coat according to your cloth. In no country is good 
sport to be got without great outlay. Fox-hunting, pheasant-shooting, par- 
tridge-shooting, a grouse-moor, deer-stalking — all these are the right only of 
the rich. Still, as a youth, or connected with wealthier friends, you may 
have been invited to participate occasionally in all these sports without much 
outlay. So in Eastern Bengal you cannot keep elephants and pig-stickers, or 



EXPENDITURE. Ill 

go for a month^s tiger-shooting to the Brahmapootra churs^ without drawing 
heavily firom yoor bank. With the exception of snipe-shootings which costs 
a mere nothing, and wildfowl-shooting when it is to be got near, and a little 
shooting at game birds and hares with beaters, you can work none of the great 
sports without a large expenditure. Yet a friend may offer you a few days' 
shooting, with the chance of a shot at a tiger, and lend you an elephant and 
a howdah, giving you your meals and a share in a tent, merely asking you to 
bring your own camp-bed and battery. Possibly you may have even horses 
lent you for pig-sticking. After I got my name up I had numerous offers of 
horses — sometimes three for one meet ; and in early days I had a deal of 
excellent sport on other men's horses, with my own spurs and spear. 

You must begin in accordance with your income. Suppose your income 
and salary to be Rs. 500 per mensem. You would have a good riding-horse 
and your own guns ; with these perhaps you would see a little hog-hunting 
and the best of snipe-shooting. As you get promoted to Bs. 700 per mensem 
you may increase your stable. Before this, if you take my advice, you will 
have procured your howdah and prepared your guddy, so as to be able to make 
use of an elephant or two borrowed occasionally. When your pay reaches 
Rs. 1000 you may begin to form your elephant stud, and so on. Most of the 
keen shikarries of Bengal, who studied and pursued sport with zest and vigour, 
and continued to do so for years, were bachelors. A married man with a rising 
family could not be allowed to spend his Christmas and other gay seasons away 
from his wife and his friends, in the hills and lonely jungles far away. Family 
ties are a great check to the pursuit of Indian sport for a continuance ; and 
unless you contemplate a persevering prosecution of sport, almost as a business 
to be steadily followed year after year, you cannot expect to attain to the 
position of a real Bengal sahib, and very much of my lessons will remain 
unstudied. Perhaps others may profit by them, as a whole or in part. 



Lbttbe No. 28.— tigers. 

The first Tiger I saw.— Obhyah country. The Burrin.— How I failed at my first attempt. — 
If possible do not disturb a Tiger late in the day. — ^The Judge introduces me to my first 
Tiger, and instructs me. — ^Kite flies away with a Tiger — Backeigunge. — The Soonder- 
bunds. Difficulties connected with Sport there. 

I KILLED my first boar within two weeks of my arrival in Bengal ; but it was 
more than two years before I saw a real Bengal tiger in his native jungle, and 
then I did not bag him. 



112 SPORT IN EASTEli BENGAL. 

A Haileybury friend was marching to his appointment from Rajshahye and 
shooting as he went. The judge of Bajshahye lent me a howdah and two 
elephants, and I went with my friend for two days. There* is a charming 
place in the Rajshahye district called Obhyah. Once indigo was made there, 
but the factory, bungalow, and vats are deserted, and I suppose by this time 
have disappeared ; the bungalow was situated on a high bank of red soil over 
the clear river, the Maldah Mahanuddy, which separated Rajshahye from 
the Maldah and Pumeah districts. A nicer place for a sportman than Obhyah 
I never met in my Indian experience; all sorts of game abounded. In 1850 
Nawabs of Morshedabad had not ruined the place, as I heard they afterwards 
did by their yearly excursions. There was a valley with water in the centre 
extending for many miles ; deep nullahs, fringed with tall, strong grass near 
the streams, and lighter thatching-grass on the borders, among which were 
patches of rosebush-jungle, ran at right angles to the water from plains of 
cultivated land on both sides of the valley. Beyond the cultivation was the 
Burrin; this consisted of dry and almost useless soil, so high above the 
valley that the people sometimes called it the Burrin Hills. Here were large 
tracts of tree-jungle, with palms, bamboos, and all the common Bengal trees ; 
at the foot of these trees shrubby, thorny jungle afforded the best of cover for 
all game. The Burrin was so unlimited, so hard to beat, so difficult to shoot 
in, and considered so unsatisfactory, that sportsmen seldom looked it up ; 
nevertheless it was here that most of the game found breeding-shelter, and 
from the Burrin the deer and the hogs descended to the valleys to find shelter 
in the grass and rose-bushes and to revel in the green crops, and when hard 
pressed by beating-elephants, all the game would make for the Burrin. Here, 
between the water and the Burrin, was ample space to ride hog and deer ; 
tigers and leopards followed the deer and hog to the valley; black par- 
tridges and hog-deer swarmed in the thatching-grass ; khyah partridges, 
called here " chickore,'^ abounded in the rose-bushes ; snipe and nearly every 
kind of Bengal wild duck resorted to the water in the centre. The only game 
which stuck steadily to the Burrin, as far as I could ascertain, consisted of 
spotted deer, which I never shot elsewhere in Bengal proper, and peafowl. It 
was in this delightful hunting-place that I saw a tiger for the first time. 

The faded ink of the diary briefly records : — " 1850, Jan. 24th, Obhyah. 
Four deer, nine brace of partridges, two couple of snipe, two wild ducks ; 
wounded a tiger.'^ But I remember every incident of the day well. The 
sport was, as we thought, over. We were returning to the deserted factory, 
where my friend was to rest for the night ; I was to return to office at head- 
quarters in a palkee. The water from the factory-vats used to be carried off by 
a deeply-cut nullah, which had long been neglected, and was now filled with 
tall grass. Just for a possible shot, or a jackal to discharge our bullets at, 
we beat up the nullah, and close to the vats I saw a head and ears with two 
white spots ; and before I knew what it was, out bounded a lovely tiger. My 



\ 



.♦ TIGERS. 113 

mahout promptly took his elephant down to the bottom of the nullah^ instead 
of going up the bank ; thus I lost time. When I did reach the upper regions 
the tiger had gone some way into the thatching-grassy I got a long shot and 
wounded him. Of course we did our best, and beat up the grass as well as 
we could ; we found blood, and here and there a trail, but darkness came 
on in half an hour, and we had to stop. My friend beat the whole place next 
morning, but never found the tiger. 

Thus early in my tiger-shooting lessons I might have been taught two 
things — one, always remain atop of a nullah, never go down towards its 
centre if you want a shot ; another, if possible do not disturb a tiger just 
before dark ; of course sometimes it cannot be avoided, but if circumstances 
will admit of it leave the jungle undisturbed and visit it as early as possible 
next morning. 

If there is a kill the chances are the tiger will visit it, and when gorged go 
to drink and then to rest in the nearest favourable cover. You may find out 
if he has eaten more of the dead bullock ; you may track his footsteps. At 
any rate you will have light to beat every place thoroughly and time to follow 
the tiger if you should start him. I was young and inexperienced at that 
time ; my companion had then shot neither deer nor tiger. I suppose we 
both speedily picked up more art as we went on with our shikar. 

A tiger disturbed after sunset and fired at will probably leave the jungle in 
which he was found and travel far away during the night ; no one will see 
him as he goes. But a tiger who has fed well during the night and chosen 
the place for his shelter during the glare of the following day, will be slum- 
bering and still till roused up by the elephants, and then he will cling to the 
jungle in preference to facing open plains, where he would most likely be 
viewed. I always found tigers much more lively after sunset and much more 
wary and difficult of approach. 

On my return to the station I received a good deal of tiger-shooting advice 
from the judge, who was preparing for his annual shikar expedition. He 
promised to get me a chance again at a tiger ; and exactly a month after I 
killed my first tiger. I obtained a week's leave from the collector : I had only 
just joined as an assistant and knew little of Bengalee or law. The 
coUector politely said, '' Go, by all means ; you are little use to me. I have 
to supervise all your work, and may as well do it from the first.'' And so I 
went. 

I shot with the judge for five days and had excellent sport ; but only on 
one of these days did we kill a tiger. Word was brought of a kill near a 
nullah well known to the judge and his friend, a planter who had joined us 
with some of his own elephants. There was no mistake as to the truth of the 
information ; we found plenty of traces, but for a long time we failed to 
find the animal. It seemed to me that I never saw so much game or had 
such beautiful chances ; but the judge's orders were imperative — '' Fire at 

I 



114 SPORT IX EASTERN BENGAL. 

nothings not even a leopard, till you see the tiger^ and keep as silent as yon 
can/' At last about forty yards in front a tiger came to the edge of the 
grass on my side ; she stumbled and rolled about with a blundering curious 
action : I was much excited^ but managed to hit her on the fore leg. She 
gave a roar and retreated into the thickest of the grass. The report of the 
shot at once brought up the judge and the planter ; they had killed tigers 
at this spot before. The judge laid out the beat and gave us our places^ and 
we moved on : presently the grass was seen to be waving, and the tiger broke 
across an open spot, and we all peppered her well, and there she lay biting 
her own fore leg most viciously. As soon as she was quite dead we got off 
the elephants, measured her, and I was shown the proper way to pad a 
tiger. 

When we reached camp and skinned the tigress, four young cubs were 
found inside of her. A flock of vultures and no end of kites had attended our 
camp, feeding on the carcases and entrails of the game we killed. A boy 
got hold of one of these half-formed cubs ; it was about the size of a rat : 
he was taking it home, when a kite made a swoop and took it clean out of 
his hand and flew off with it — ^a case of a kite carrying off a tiger. 

There were tigers at every station to which I was ever appointed. I killed 
tigers at all except Backergunge and Chittagong. At Backergunge there 
are perhaps more tigers than in any other district; but they are to be 
found mostly in the unhealthy Soonderbund in the south of the district. 
There were no elephants available during the few months I was at Backer- 
gunge ; there were no roads at all then, if even now any exist. It was a bad 
place for horses ; one had to go everywhere in a boat. Every bazaar and 
village was situated on a stream. I only made one expedition to the south, 
and that was for rhinoceros. But gentlemen who had taken leases of Soon- 
derbund land and had to clear away forest and cultivate rice, and lived in 
this insalubrious country, used to kill no end of tigers yearly almost in self- 
defence ; and a cousin of mine got some sport in the district. It was a place 
I hated, though I had often to visit it. I killed buffaloes and wildfowl and 
rhinoceros ; and the island of Duckin Shabazpore, which was almost as near 
Backergunge as to NoakhoUy, and where I had magnificent sport, was within 
a fourteen hours^ row in a boat. However, I look on Backergunge as the 
worst station to which I was sent. 

There are tigers in Chittagong, and others have killed them ; but, as a rule, 
they live in the hills which are covered with dense jungles. The regular 
pursuit of them does not pay. I was not very long at Chittagong : the best 
sport there is jungle-fowl and snipe-shooting. NoakhoUy too can be worked 
for hog-hunting. 

I was never stationed at Moorshedabad, Nuddeah, or Furreedpore ; but I 
have shot and ridden hogs in these zillahs. I believe no tiger-shooting is to 
be got now in any of them. The districts to the west of the Hoogly river do 



THE SOONDERBUNDS. 115 

not come under the definition of Eastern Bengal. Perhaps tigers are more 
numerous in the Soonderbunds than in any other part of India ; these stretch 
from the mouth of the Hoogly eastward to the mouth of the Megna, all along 
the northern shores of the Bay of Bengal : they are almost devoid of popu- 
lation; high tides flow over them. They are covered with peculiar jungles 
and trees that flourish in muddy soil tainted with salt ; these jungles are 
full of tigers and spotted deer ; crocodiles are to be seen on the banks of 
every stream; rhinoceros^ swamp-deer^ and jungle-fowl inhabit certain 
parts. But generally the country is so unhealthy and has so bad a repu- 
tation that Europeans do not work it for sport. One unfortunate friend of 
mine attempted to shoot tigers at Saugor Island. He touched a tiger-trap, 
the gun went off, the bullets passed through both thighs ; he was taken as 
fast as a boat could carry him to the Calcutta Hospital, and died, I think, 
before he reached it. Strange to say, this gentleman was nearly killed when 
riding a buffalo ; he escaped that time with the loss of his horse. But another 
mutual friend of ours, a man of very great sporting knowledge and expe- 
rience, on an evil day had the folly to try and shoot a buffalo on foot in 
muddy ground, and paid the forfeit of his life. This, too, occurred not far 
from the Soonderbunds. The judge of Backergunge, who afterwards was the 
commissioner, whose ill-luck I have mentioned under the head of hog-hunting 
earlier in these letters, went shooting in the Soonderbunds immediately after 
I left his district. He disregarded rules which I had often discussed with 
him, and let his men straggle about instead of keeping them together : his 
best man was kiUed by a wounded tiger; and he declined to go tiger- 
shorting alone any more in the Backergunge Soonderbunds. Tiger-shooting 
on foot in these jungles requires judgment and care, and, considering the 
deadly nature of the fevers almost always contracted in this pestiferous salt 
mangrove-swamp, I think the tigers of the Soonderbunds had better be 
left in peace. 



Letter No. 29. 

Size of Tigers : seldom exceed 11 feet. — ^Anecdote of firing into & I^r with small shot — 
Number of Tigers killed by one man. — ^A youngster or a stranger requires to be taught 
the science of Tiger«hooting. — ^Tiger-shooting in Duckin Shabazpore. I prepare 
boats and transport Elephants to the island in the Megna. — ^Balam boats. — Send Ele- 
phants across. — Employ Shikarry in getting true information. 

I HAVE no need to tell you much about the natural history of the tiger ; 
specimens are to be seen in every menagerie. But as to his size you will 

i2 



116 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

have very different accounts. There was an article on this subject, written by 
my friend Sir Joseph Fayrer, in ' Nature ' for November 1878. The state- 
ments of many experienced sportsmen were recorded, my own among the 
number. I say there that no tiger killed by me measured more than 11 feet 
from snout to tail when properly measured *. I have shot with several of 
the gentlemen whose notes were recorded by Sir Joseph. A curious thing 
happened when I was shooting with Mr. C. Shillingford, which I will relate 
presently. Had that tiger been measured before he was skinned in my 
presence, I might have been able to say I had shot a tiger between 11 and 
12 feet long ; but though I wounded the animal when alive, I was not present 
when he was killed. I merely, to my chagrin, was repeatedly shown the 
skin afterwards. I may remark that the most experienced tiger-shooter in 
my own service stated that he did not think he had once kiUed one more 
than 11 feet and a few inches long; and I know he killed between four 
and five hundred tigers. The conclusion Sir Joseph comes to, after careful 
comparison of accounts, is that any thing over 10 feet is very large, but that 
tigers may exceed 10 feet 3 inches, and that, in a few rare and exceptional 
instances, 11 and even 12 feet have been recorded. 

Tigers vary greatly in size and weight ; those of the Tippera, Sylhet, and 
Chittagong hills are smaller in every way, as far as my experience went, 
than those which inhabited the churs and riverain lands in the same part of 
Bengal. I cannot exactly say why the animals in the north-east of Noak- 
holly were so decidedly smaller than those of the churs, nor why the Soon- 
derbund tigers killed by shikarries and brought to Backergunge for the 
Government reward were smaller than those killed in the islands of the 
Megna. It was a curious fact too that the reverse was the case with hogs ; 
the chur hogs of NoakhoUy were smaller than the inland hogs. I have seen 
very large old hogs near the hills of Tippera and Sylhet. Tigers vary greatly 
in their tails. Some sportsmen are very clever in stretching skins when 
being dried to a marvellous size. One takes great care as regards the first 
few tigers one kills ; but after you get accustomed to it you only measure 
the very largest. My diary gives no measurements scarcely in my later ye9.rs 
in Bengal. 

Now for the curious episode with Mr. C. Shillingford. It happened in 
August 1862, and in the course of one of the many unsuccessful and unsatis- 
factory expeditions after tigers, which I do not refer to much, for if I were 
to tell of my bad days as lengthily as I write of some of the best, old age 
would carry me off before I could end. However, I joined a party in the 
south of the Pumeah district to shoot up some ground on which tigers were 
supposed to be numerous, and which could only be got at that time of the 

* Different men measuxe differently, and measurement with a rigid rule differs from that 
with a flexible tape. 



FIRING AT A TIGER WITH SMALL SHOT. 117 

year, when the Gangetic inundation had swamped all the low ground and 
driven all game to the few hillocks and places not under water. The party 
consisted of Mr. C. Shillingford, two artillery officers, and myself. The 
weather was hot and abominable, niuggy, and at times wet. The boundless 
plains of lower Purneah were covered with grass which varied from 4 to 12 
feet in height. To my mind the country was in the worst possible condition 
for sport ; but no doubt sport is to be got at such times, and has been got, 
only we were unlucky, and I was especially so. We were out for several 
days, and were continually deluded by tales of tigers here and tigers there. 
We shot at no inferior game when there was any chance of tiger. On the 
whole trip our bag was only a few buffaloes, partridges, and peafowl. One 
day, the last that I could stay but one, we put up a lot of partridges and 
a peacock, and marked them, and it was decided to go at them for want of 
nobler game. So the two officers went towards the partridges, and Shillingford 
and I went after the peacock ; it had flown into a very thick tree, at the base 
of which was some scrubby jungle. We were dodging round the tree, trying to 
get first chance at the bird; Shillingford saw it and dropped it almost on to a 
fine tiger, which bolted out about twelve paces from my elephant. In my 
haste I let fly with No. 5 shot ; I then changed, and took up a ball-gun and 
hit the tiger hard, but he was into grass twelve feet high in a minute. We all 
gathered together and beat that overgrown grass-jungle artistically and 
patiently, with no result. Next day was my last ; I could spare no more 
time, and left. A few days after, the other three sportsmen came on this 
tiger ; he was wounded, sick, and savage, and fought the elephants and gave 
great sport. When killed, it was found that my ball had wounded him badly, 
and the sore was in an inflamed and stinking condition, which accounted for 
the tiger's angry behaviour. On skinning him the whole charge of No. 5 
shot was found in his skin, and I believe it is there now. Whenever I visited 
these hospitable planters, I was shown the skin and chaffed about it. As 
shown to me, the skin was nearly twelve feet long, and they all declared that 
the animal was much over eleven feet when unskinned ; but I was quite close 
to him when alive, and he seemed no bigger than many I had killed, and as 
he had not been measured, I declined to believe that he was eleven feet . 
long. 

The Fumeah tigers are certainly large and fierce, those of the Purneah 
Terai especially. In that neighbourhood lived Mr. George Palmer, and this 
gentleman was said to have killed many more tigers than any man in India ; 
he lived in a tiger country, was a fine shot, and had many excellent elephants. 
I was told that he had killed above a thousand tigers before I met him : how 
many he killed in his lifetime I never heard ; but he had for more than thirty 
yearsy I believe, worked up the Purneah and Rungpore jungles at the foot of 
the Himalaya Mountains, and knew all the Brahmapootra churs well. He 
was a large landholder as well as an indigo-planter. 



118 SPORT IN EASTEKN BENGAL. 

If you can make friends with some such gentleman as this^ and arrange to 
have some sport with him, you would enjoy it, and find what a little you 
knew and how much you had to learn. Occasionally rich men, even from 
England, obtain introductions to sportsmen who live in the right place, and 
induce them to arrange a shooting-party at the expense of the stranger ; in 
fact, no stranger nor youngster unacquainted with the country can expect to 
get good tiger-shooting off-hand, except with the aid of capable and experi- 
enced persons, who know where tigers are to be found and how to organize a 
campaign against them ; and it is only fair that the rich stranger should pay 
for the costly enjoyment he seeks to obtain. 

The first regular expedition I made for tiger-shooting, and nothing else, 
entirely on my own responsibility and cost, came off in The Doorga-Poojah 
holidays in 1854, in Pergunnah Duckin Shabazpore, a large island in the 
Megna, forming part of the district of Noakholly. 

I began arrangements for this expedition about two months before actual 
sport could begin ; the rains were in full pour the whole time, and the rivers 
and streams at their deepest. I had one good howdah-elephant and two small 
baggage-animals of my own ; in the course of time I borrowed seven more, 
most of them good-sized useful elephants. I knew I could get sufficient 
elephants ; but the question was^ how was I to get them to Duckin Shabazpore, 
an island in the Megna, separated from the mainland of Noakholly by a deep 
rapid tidal stream, averaging a width of between four and five miles. At the 
best I could only get a boat across once a day, and only in favourable 
weather; steady rain without wind was what I wished for for crossing, and 
fine days, of course, for shooting. 

I hired a large balam boat from Chittagong for two months ; the elephants 
were to be taken across and brought back in this vessel. These very peculiar 
boats are made in Arracan, and employed greatly in the corn, rice, betel-nut, 
jute, tobacco, dried fish and flesh, native cloth, and all manner of trades from 
Naraingunge southward all along the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal : 
they are made of planks without rivets of any kind ; the boards are placed 
together and sewn strongly with native cane, and the seams are caulked with 
hemp and prepared juice of the gab tree. The boat as a whole is flexible and 
will stand much knocking about : the large ones carry many thousand 
maunds of cargo; they are rowed by twelve to twenty rowers, and have 
mat sails. 

The next thing was to prepare places for embarking and disembarking, and 
to make the boat fit for the huge heavy animals ; this had to be done at a 
distance, under the superintendence of the best natives I could get. The 
bottom of the boat was filled for three feet with beaten soil and the trunks of 
plantain or banana trees. I rode over to see the first elephant put on board. 
The boat was heeled over and the elephant, one of the best behaved, was 
walked into it; she did it quietly; the boat was then righted and the 



TIGER-SHOOTING IN DUOKIN SHABAZPORE. 119 

elephant firmly secured, and then, at the first favourable tide the boat was 
taken across, accompanied by two magisterial guard-boats : in less than two 
hours the animal was landed in the island of Duckin Shabazpore. It 
took nearly a fortnight to take all the elephants across ; during this time 
Budderuddeen and his cousin Ali were scouting up the whole island, and 
making, I afterwards heard, a nice little sum by showing the elephants to 
the men, women, and children of that inaccessible country. 

I knew tigers abounded in the island ; the reports from the shikarry were 
excellent ; and I knew to a certainty of nine tigers in good country, where 
they might be killed with ordinary luck. The south-west of the island was 
adjacent to the Soonderbunds ; the country here was impracticable for 
elephants, though probably all the tigers in the island come from this 
quarter. I commenced from as near this comer of the island as I could, 
having to sail round the northern extremity first, and I reached the elephants 
on the 23rd of September. 

I lived comfortably in my large coss-boat, which, as magistrate of Noak- 
hoUy, I was bound to keep. The weather was execrable, and half the time 
the rains came down in a deluge, and sport was impossible ; but on the fine 
days it exceeded my expectations. The time for arrangements having been 
longer than I expected, the holidays on the criminal or magisterial side 
came to an end ; the civil and revenue courts were shut for a longer period. 
I had therefore to conduct a certain amount of official work, and to be in 
office for about six hours a day for three days in the week. 



Letter No. 30. 

The country to be beaten up.— Sport with Tigers.— Bad weather. — Several Tigers.— A very 
hard day. Wasps. Difficulties. Fighting Tiger. Fighting Tigress : attacks the 
Elephant. Another Tiger. Obliged to turn homewards. Remarks on this day's sport. 
—Man-killer.— Try to kill a brace of Tigers right and left. Fail, and then kill the two. 
A third large and savage Tiger. Brilliant charge. 

I COMMENCED ou the 24th September. A cow had been killed during the 
night close to my boat; I came on tracks^ but found that jungle quite 
impracticable : it consisted of unlimited null-grass as high as the elephants. 
This grass affords splendid cover for game, and is resorted to by all animals 
except, perhaps, bears ; it is good food for elephants when succulent : when 
in patches, there is good shooting to be got ; but when unlimited in extent, 
as it was here in September, it would have been waste of time to try to 
beat in it. So I arranged to shoot to Sumblepoorah, and ordered the whole 



120 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

of the boats to move to that village. I had some hard beating on the way to 
this place ; but I put up a very large and handsome male tiger, who was 
wounded at the first shot, and then charged well when I next came near him ; 
he was not more than nine feet six inches long and had a short tail, but he 
was exceedingly stout and heavy, and stood four feet at the shoulder — ^I 
think the highest tiger I ever killed; he had a splendid hairy head; his arm 
was exactly two feet in circumference. The natives said two other tigers 
went off while I was engaged with this one ; I had no time for more, the 
whole day had been spent as detailed. 

The next day it rained in desperate torrents. On the 26th I was on my 
elephant by 5.30 a.m. ; the boats were ordered to Toobkee, and the mamjees 
were directed to keep a look-out for the elephants and shots. The boats 
sailed up the beautiful river Betwah, on the banks of which I intended to 
have a long steady beat ; and an arduous day it was, under a fierce sun, in a 
very damp atmosphere. 

At that early hour no infoimation could be expected. I commenced to 
beat where I had left off last time; the jungle was good, and there were 
traces of tigers, and nothing more. Then I beat up some hoogla-jungle 
and saw plenty of footmarks : next I tried some heavy jungle to the north- 
ward, which was far more difficult to beat ; the trees and thorns were very 
thick, and in nearly every likely place was a wasps' nest. I all but abandoned 
the place, when a tiger started ; I gave him two balls, and he fell under a 
wasps' nest : before I could manage to give him a mortal wound, he got into 
still thicker tree-jungle, and in beating this, I put up a much larger tiger 
and wounded him. We were working away as hard as we could, difficult 
beating, no end of bother with the wasps, when one of the wounded tigers 
sneaked out, and went across the tall rice-crop to a small patch of jungle, and 
the natives shouted and marked him exactly. I got the elephants together 
and made a close line. This patch gave no difficulty, but the tiger at once 
charged : I knocked him over with a ball in the throat, and I thought he was 
killed ; he, however, got up again and got into some thick grass, and there 
we found him, dead. This was a male, but the smaller of the two. 

Budderuddeen, who had been scouting all the morning, now came up and 
said he had marked a tiger into the hoogla-jungle, which I had beaten early in 
the morning ; it had gone there while I was shooting at the others. It was 
now near midday, so I gave half an hour's rest : the mahouts got what refresh- 
ment they could from a little village — parched rice, sweetmeats, and milk ; I 
sat under a tree, and the elephants found plenty of bamboo-leaves. Then we 
went to the hoogla ; but before entering it I heard that the tiger had gone 
right through to some jungle on the river bank : went after him at best 
pace. The jungle now was partly tree and shrub and partly kewah or screw- 
pine, and we came on two dead cows, freshly killed, and very soon after 
turned up a tigress, which growled and roared : I hit her and stopped her ; 



TIGER-SHOOTINQ. 121 

she got under some thick thorny kewah^ and it was not easy to get a shot^ 
and the elephants were rather frightened by her roars. Suddenly she charged 
right out and attacked an elephant called '' Brindabund/' and they had a grand 
fight : the elephant kicked the tigress about^ each kick would have killed a 
man in an instant ; but the tigress was tough and fierce^ and wounded 
"Brindabund'' on the trunk and on each leg^ and blood was pouring freely. At 
last they separated^ and I was able to put in a ball behind the ear. This was 
a long low tigress; not far off we found what I suppose was her son. He 
was not quite full-grown^ but made a deal of noise like his mother^ but 
showed no actual fight^ and was killed in three shots. Budderuddeen 
declared that neither of these two tigers was the one he marked into the 
hoogla; however, I had now got a long way from the hoogla and the jungle 
in which I had left the wounded tiger in the morning. It was nearly 4 p.m.^ 
I had a long way to go to reach the boats, and three tigers were padded ; 
I decided to beat towards the boats. 

Nothing could have been better than the day's sport : had I been accompanied 
by two more experienced hunters^ with elephants^ I might possibly have^ 
twice in my life, been at the death of five tigers in a day ; but I had all 
the beating to do, and it was most difficult. The jungle in September is at 
its densest and worst condition, the trees and thorns rendered it imperative 
that I should keep the elephants in line by being in their midst, and so, of 
course, I could not take very many chances that offered themselves on each 
side ; and, above all, each tiger seemed at once to take a line among the wasps' 
nests. These wasps are not so bad as bees, in that they do not leave the bush 
in which the nest is for more than a radius of about thirty yards, whereas bees 
will follow hunters for miles ; but still they almost prevent beating. After- 
wards, in subsequent expeditions at this season, I always carried a kind of fire- 
work made of gunpowder and saltpetre and stuff, enclosed in a lump of hardened 
dry clay ; this could be thrown into the bush, and after a moment it would 
fizz and roar and smoke, and sometimes it made a tiger bolt ; but it frightened 
the elephants, and did nearly as much harm as good. 

Rain in unceasing torrents and official work took up my time till the 29th 
of September, when my boats were at Khola. I had killed a tigress since 
those mentioned on the 26th, who was said to have carried off a man : I could 
not get sufficient corroboration to make me believe the story; very commonly 
any man who is missing in these parts is reported as having been carried off by 
a tiger. On the 29th, however, when I was engaged in police business, a man 
rather obstreperously forced his way to my table and threw down on my 
papers the leg and foot of a boy, saying — " What is the use of a Hakim like 
you ? There is the leg of my only son ; why not kill the tiger that ate him ? '' 
The rain had ceased. I knew there were several tigers, so I at once ordered 
the elephants and set out for a long afternoon. I was taken to a nice kind of 
jungle, and in less than five minutes away went a tiger. I had a couple of 



li'2 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

long shots and believe I missed. We now had to beat the sides of a large 
tank ; I took up a good position^ kept one elephant beside me to prevent my 
howdah-elephant from being unsteady^ and let the other elephants beat 
towards me. Presently not one but two beautiful tigers broke across an open 
space. I tried hard to perform a feat I had long wished for an opportunity 
to try^ viz. to kill two tigers dead right and left ; but the first did not fall to 
the shot^ so I had to put the second ball into him. That, too, did not kill 
outright. Tigers on such occasions go a great pace, and both my balls were 
slightly behind the spot I meant to hit. The second tiger was unfired at ; I 
went after the wounded one, got another shot as he was going quick through 
the jungle, and then when next I got to him he was dead. How the second 
tiger got back into the spot where I first found him I never could tell, for 
there were several hundreds of villagers watching from all parts — tops of trees, 
tops of houses, and from every available point of view. However she got up 
again exactly where she did at first. I hit her somewhere about the head, I 
think, because her behaviour after the shot was rather insane : she took 
through the thick jungle where she had shelter, and loitered in the thin where 
she was exposed, and then she went out into the growing rice, and there I got 
an easy shot and killed her. This was a nice pair of beautifully marked 
tigers ; but the man who had lost his son said that the real animal was larger 
and of a darker colour than these two. The scouts now came with reports 
of a kill only two hours before. They said the tiger was in hoogla-jungle ; 
this jungle {Typha elephantina is its botanical name, I believe) is always 
easily beaten, so, though the sun was already near the horizon and the jungle 
fully three miles off, and my rule is not to disturb a tiger late in the day, 
I resolved to go at him. We pounded along as quick as possible, leaving a 
chuprassy to superintend the skinning of the pair of tigers, and got to the 
jungle just as the sun set. There had been no kill, but a tremendous tiger 
was stated to have tried to kill one of a large herd of buffaloes which had 
beaten him off. The Gowala, or cowherd, declared he had heard the tiger roar 
not ten minutes before we came. The elephants were put in line ; I took 
the centre ; the beating was quite easy. Presently Budderuddeen, who was 
in the howdah behind me, said " I smell him I *' and then I saw a very large 
dark tiger standing about eighty yards off lashing his tail ; almost instantly 
he gave a roar and came down on us in splendid style. My elephant was 
quite steady : I hit him well forward and he rolled over twice like a rabbit, 
but was up in a moment and went direct at a small beater elephant to my 
left, which bolted with a shriek of terror ; this gave me an easy shot at 
about twenty yards, and I killed him stone dead with a bullet in the neck. 

This was a really large tiger, about ten feet four or five inches long, very 
dark in the skin, old and covered with scars, and with one canine tooth 
broken out ; probably this was the man-killer. His skin when stretched and 
dried was twelve feet long, and eight feet and three inches broad ; he was. 



TIGER-SHOOTING AT DUCKIN SHABAZPORE. 123 

however^ not nearly so tall at the shoulder as the tiger killed earlier in this 
expedition. 

I got no more luck till I came to the last day's beat before I should return 
to the mainland. Here I got one tiger^ and then my first trip to the islands 
of the Megna for tiger-shooting ended. The exigencies of office and the 
greater charm of pig-sticking at Siddhee and on the mainland^ and occasional 
trips for junglefowl-shooting with Tippera friends at the foot of the hills^ 
with accidental days at a tiger now and then when visiting police stations^ 
took up the remainder of the seasons. 



Letter No. 31. 

Another trip to the islands. — A roaring Tiger. — Buffaloes. — Sport flags. — ^Beat a likely jungle, 
which a native Shikarry had disturbed. — ^flnd that a Tiger had been shot by a poisoned 
arrow, and eaten by wife and daughter. — ^Kill these two Tigers. — ^Tigers feed on each 
other, and eveiy other thing, even grasshoppers. — ^I try a dish of locusts. — Long hunt 
after Tigers. Find at last — Budderuddeen hunts up the trail. Place scouts on trees, 
and eventually bag this shirking Tigress. — ^Arrangements for shooting while engaged on 
duty in the interior of districts. — Grand fight with a Man-killer. 

At the next Doorga-Poojah holidays in 1855 I visited Duckin Shabazpore 
again on a tiger-killing expedition. This time I prevailed on the doctor of 
the station to come with me for a few days. We were later and reached the 
rendezvous on the 14th October and got on the elephants about 1 p.m. at 
Mungul Shigdars Hath. We heard of a fresh kill and turned up two tigers^ 
both females. The doctor had only just come from England and knew 
nothing about sporty but he managed to knock over the smaller tigress well : 
the larger showed fight, but was stopped at once and killed ; she was 8 feet 

8 inches long and stood 3 feet 3 ioches at the shoulder. 

Next day we beat a deal of grassy jungle to the south-west. I believe we 
moved game^ but the grass was high and we could see nothing ; so we passed 
over a stream into Chur Lord Harding. There was a deal of mangrove- 
jungle here ; the trees were thick and strong ; tigers were said to live here^ 
but we saw none^ and the under part of the jungle was open. Beyond the 
mangrove was a nice patch of hoogi a; here there was a roaring tiger. He 
made all the elephants bolt and we had great trouble in killing him ; he was 

9 feet 5 inches long and stood 3 feet 6 inches. 

On the 16th we had a long day's beating over Sumblepoorah and Dolye- 
gonugger, but put up no tigers ; we saw some hog-deer, which are scarce in 
Duckin Shabazpore, and came on a herd of buffaloes ; we bagged two females, 
but could not get at the large male. At night we moved the boats to 
Kuchooah. 



^24 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

On the 17th we tried most promising jungles ; killed a female tiger 8 feet 
6 inches long. There were many traces^ but we found nothing : this was 
remarkable as the ground was first rate ; I killed tigers here in two subse- 
quent years. At this season^ however, very many tigers remain unfound in 
the extensive jungles and there is a great deal in luck. On the 18th we came 
across the same herd of buffaloes again, but never got up to them. 

On the 19th we came to the beat which Buddeniddeen had long told us 
was the most certain. He knew of a family of three tigers and had seen 
them together more than once. The jungle, which was light, bordered the 
Gungapore Khali or stream. Everywhere there were traces of tigers — foot- 
marks, old kills, and sleeping-places ; but a native shikarry, we heard, had 
been after them for a week, and an old hypocritical Fakeer professed to have 
spirited them away with incantations ; anyhow we did not come on them at 
first. About three miles off was a large jungle, and it seemed as if the tigers 
had shifted their quarters to this place. We followed the tracks in this 
direction, and just as we entered this thick and difficult jungle we came on 
what seemed a fresh kill. To my astonishment, I saw the hind quarter of a 
tiger half eaten ; I got off the elephant and examined, and we found all the 
arrangements of the shikarry, and his bow which had discharged a poisoned 
arrow. A boy in a tree said the shikarry had set the trap the night before ; 
this was discouraging. We began to beat the thorny jungle to the best of 
our power, and presently there was a growl and a charge, and evidently we 
had disturbed more than one tiger. 

The jungle was as high as our heads ; there was a deal of thick, strong, 
thorny bush-jungle and bright green grass with waving feathery tops, a 
grass not unlike pampas grass. By degrees, and by keeping the elephants 
very close together, we beat this down, and at the sixth beat we caught sight 
of one tiger and wounded her, and at the next beat managed to kill her, 
and while doing so another got into a comer. We got fair shots at her, 
when we forced her out and so we bagged the two. The first tiger measured 
8 feet 11 inches, which is large for a tigress, and the second was a little 
under 8 feet long. 

We took the bodies home, and on skinning them and opening their 
stomachs I took nearly the whole skin of a tiger from their insides. It was 
now clear that the native shikarry had shot the large male of the family of 
three tigers, and that the two females had eaten the male when killed. 
Tigers are omnivorous. From habit and preference they prefer to feed on 
deer, hogs, and cattle killed by themselves, but they will eat any dead 
J animal they come across. I have just shown that they eat the dead bodies 
of their companions ; I have proved that in the inundations they catch fish, 
turtles, crocodiles, and large lizards. I believe they will occasionally eat 
sugar-cane and maize; but the most curious thing I ever knew them eat 
was grasshoppers. I once killed a tiger whose paunch was crammed fiiU of 



HUNT AFTER TIGERS. 125 

grasshoppers or locusts; nearly all birds^ and fish, and deer, and cats eat 
grasshoppers, but it was new to me that a tiger should catch and eat several 
pounds of these insects at once. 

I tried locusts, on one occasion, myself. The air was nearly black with 
them ; I fired two charges of snipe-shot, and picked up enough for a dish. 
The cook prepared these with a kind of curry-sauce. They were not at all 
bad, and reminded me of shrimps ; the shelly skins were rather troublesome ; 
but John the Baptist was not so badly ofT if he had plenty of locusts and 
wild honey. 

I never saw the shikarry, but we appropriated his bow; it was short and 
extremely strong, and was tied to a tree and fired off by means of a string 
stretched at about six inches from the ground. The tiger's body we thought 
must have been within four feet from the point of the arrow when the bow 
went off. I believe the poison consists chiefly of the venom of the cobra ; 
this is easily extracted, as I shall detail when I come to the letter on 
snakes. 

I shall only notice one other day in this trip to the islands of the Megna. 
On the 19th of October I visited a jungle where tigers were said to have lived 
for many months. The place had been a homestead or small village, but 
had long been deserted; it was overgrown with all kinds of jungle; the old 
fruit-trees and tall palms grew on the borders of a tank, now filled up with 
the dense foliage of those plants that only grow in mud which remains wet 
all the year round. The old owners had taken up their abode in the midst of 
a fertile plain, and the luxuriant rice-crop which surrounded the whole 
jungle was above three feet high. We spent many hours beating the thorny 
shrubby matted underwood, for evidently it was a tigers' home, but they had 
departed. News was brought of a kill at a distance, and we went there and 
found that a valuable cow had been killed while I was beating the homestead. 
There was little or no jungle, and, indeed, little dry land. There was any 
amount of water and reedy island-like spots surrounded by rice-crop ; the 
elephants were continually sinking up to their middles. But we found two 
tigers and both started in different directions ; they were difficult to follow 
on account of the deep mud ; but we killed the smaller, and when this, one 
was padded I set Budderuddeen to follow the trail of the other. He hunted 
it well and quickly ; each footmark in the mud was plain, but the deep water 
puzzled us : at times we traced where the tiger had swam across by the 
tracks among the lotus-leaves and flowers, and then the footmarks on the 
other side were hit off, and so gradually we marked the tigress back to the 
very jungle so carefully beaten in the morning. This was now much trampled 
down. I put about a dozen boys up in palm trees to mark. The tigress 
evidently knew that her home had been disturbed and all her shelter beaten 
nearly flat. As soon as we entered at one end of the jungle with the 
elephants she sneaked out at the other into the tall rice, but the shouts of 



126 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

the boys in the trees frightened her back each time she left ; she gave a deal 
of trouble and we never could get actually at her^ so at last we divided 
forces. The doctor took one half the elephants and started from one side of 
the jungle, and I came towards him with the remaining elephants firom the 
other ; these tactics were effective, and she came running from the doctor 
towards me. I hit her and she bolted back, and the doctor met her and so 
we finished her off. On occasions like these, scouts in trees are invaluable; 
but, as a rule, the lair of the tiger is in less populous places and boys as 
scouts are not procurable. 

I visited these islands twice more at the same season of the year, and had 
fair sport each time ; but there were many days when I was unsuccessful. 
Tigers, no doubt, abound more at this season than at any other. The 
wonderful growth of vegetation and the large extent of tall. rice-crop now 
getting ripe enable the animals to wander great distances unobserved ; as the 
harvest carries away the crop, and dry weather, assisted by jungle fires, 
opens out the country, most of these tigers retreat to their strongholds in the 
Soonderbunds to the westward. In the spring they seem almost to have 
left the island of Duckin Shabazpore. I killed some every year on the main- 
land when on duty in tents in the interior; I shot almost every day or 
went out hog-hunting when thus visiting the police' stations. I found 
the following distribution of duty and work answer well: — Six hours for 
office duty; these might be from six to noon, or from noon till dark, 
according to arrangement. My clerks and writers would come at daybreak, 
and all the public who had business at my tents would appear soon after; by 
noon the necessary business would be finished, and the office would then be 
closed for the day. From noon till dark I either shot on elephants, it might 
be at deer, jungle-fowl, and most likely at leopards, or I could beat up likely 
tiger- ground or go after hogs with the spear. At times the elephants might 
be sent to a distance, and I would gallop over to them and ride back after 
sunset. Sometimes it answered to alter this and to start on the elephants 
at or before daybreak, shoot till 11 a.m., and get back to office by noon, to 
sit writing and adjudicating till dark. The early morning fogs were great 
drawbacks to sport, hence I usually preferred to do the official work in the 
morning. 

One morning I was uncertain ; I was just ordering the elephants to be 
taken away and fed to be ready by 1 p.m., when some men came running 
to the tent saying that a comrade had just been seized by a tiger. They 
stated that there was no jungle, but that the tiger was in an open field, that 
the man was yet alive, and that all the villagers were watching from trees 
and house-tops. 

I started at once, and first I came across the poor man on a litter. He 
was sensible and told me that he had gone out in the fog; he saw something 
red ; on getting on to a mud wall to see better, the tiger (for the red thing 



FIGHT WITH A MAN-KILLER. 127 

was a tiger) had rushed at him and bit him on the leg^ and^ strange to say^ 
had then left him. His knee and leg were in a terrible state. I sent him in 
at once to the doctor at the station ; but the shock was too much for him, 
and he died that night. 

I went as I was directed, and, just as the fog began to lift up and the sun 
to shine, I saw the tiger stretching one leg before the other and scratching 
the earth. I walked the elephant steadily towards him. When about sixty 
yards off he rose up, and I gave him ball number one in the forearm. He 
came down at the elephant roaring and leaping, and I gave him number two. 
This knocked him down, but he was up and at me as I changed guns. Before 
I could fire again he had fixed his enormous paws in the guddy, and had seized 
the wood-work of the howdali close to my foot. I fired the double-barrelled 
gun as best I could, holding tight on to the howdah-rail with my left hand. 
This bullet missed. I then put the muzzle about an inch from his ear, and 
pulled the trigger. The baU passed through the back of his head. He fell 
off, carrying a piece of the wood-work of the howdah in his mouth. He then 
jumped high in the air and fell dead. The elephant behaved very well. 
Wood and iron-work, ropes and guddy, were all sound and well fastened ; had 
anything of importance given way, or had the howdah been pulled down, T 
might not have been writing this letter. 

I gave the head of this tiger to the doctor, and he made a nice preparation 
of the skull, with the shattered bones of the man's leg in the jaws ; but, 
unfortunately, a jackal ran off with the human bones, and so nothing but the 
tiger's skull was left. 



Letter No. 32. 

Tigen not often met without being first reported. — A good fight, and Elephant badly 
wounded. — Certain animak show that Tigers are about Vultures, Grows, &c. — Restless 
Hogs induce me to beat a jungle over again and kill a Tiger.— Tigers roaring. — Failure 
of sport owing to want of light Fail also next morning. — Let an Elephant have a 
companion if game is to be beaten towards you, or they get frightened. — Some Ele- 
phants give notice when they pass a Tiger's tiack. — ^Tigers credited with much destruc- 
tion really committed by Leopards. — ^Further remarks on this subject. 

During a very long experience, it was seldom that I came across a tiger quite 
unexpectedly or by accident. As a rule, I was always told that tigers were 
about ; they had been killing cattle lately, or their footmarks were observed, 
or we were specially beating up likely or well-known jungles. I have men- 
tioned that the first tiger 1 saw was turned up most unexpectedly close to the 
indigo factory at Obhyah in Bajshahye. I came on one by accident to the 



128 SPORT IN EASTERN BEN VL. 

north of Noakholly. Budderuddeen npd reported that there were hogs in 
some thickly covered tanks^ and I had go out with an A ab and spears. My 
howdah and guns^ as usual^ were on an ele^ihant. Budderuddeen was super* 
intending the beating from the howdah. 4t the very first side of the first 
tank he put up a large tiger^ which came close to me as I was ridings and went 
into the jungle on another bank of the tank. I was off my saddle and into 
the howdah, and had the four guns loaded with ball in no time. The first 
shot wounded the tiger, and he at once turned and charged home. He seized 
an elephant belonging to the Bhullooah Ranee, planting one paw on each side 
of the trunk, and grasping the trunk itself with his teeth about four feet from 
the ground ; and in this position the tiger remained for some time. I was 
afraid to fire. The elephant backed among the others, and the sides of the 
tank were rather steep and the thorns thick. It was some time before I -could 
get a good shot. I hit the tiger rather low in his back, and he then dropped, 
and I gave him another barrel and then killed him. 

This fierce tiger had, as far as I could ascertain, killed nothing in the 
neighbourhood. He had not been heard to roar, and none of the yillagers 
knew anything about him. My idea was that he had only come from the 
hills, or from some distant jungle, the night before. 

The elephant was very badly wounded both by claws and teeth. The trunk 
swelled to a great size, and for a long time the animal could not use it. Her 
food was put into her mouth, and water was poured down her throat from a 
bamboo tube. It was more than six months before she recovered. 

When beating for tigers on general information, without exactly knowing 
where to expect one, when no late kill could be pointed to, and all that could 
be ascertained amounted to the fact that tigers were about and ought to be 
found, I have more than once been directed to the right quarter by seeing 
hogs moving away in an unusual manner. Crows, monkeys, and vultures are 
always to be watched. Monkeys show great terror, and chatter and move most 
restlessly about. Crows invariably watch the animal which a tiger kills, and 
try to peck out the eyes the very instant the tiger leaves his prey. The vul- 
tures watch the crows and each other, and no sooner does one vulture settle 
down to the carcase than black spots appear in the sky from all directions ; 
these are vultures, who know that one of their race has found food. The 
crow will sit on the tree when the tiger is feeding. The vultures never alight 
in numbers till the tiger has left. The last to visit the carcase is the jackal. 
If you have heard of a kill in the afternoon and at early daybreak, on coming 
to the place with your elephants, you see overfed jackals leaving the jungle at 
your approach, you may know that the tiger has not been near the kill for 
hours ; but if the jackals have been making a peculiar cry, known in Bengal 
as ^' the phealV and if you see them lank and hungry-looking prowling 
round the jungle, you may be nearly certain that the tiger is still close to his 
victim. 



TIGEBS ROARINa. 1S9 

I had been hunting for honrs in most likely spots one morning, and was 
getting disappointed, when I observed first one hog and then another leave an 
unpromising piece of tree-jungle. There was no proper lying in it ; it was 
distant from grassy cover ; but why should two hogs leave their shelter when 
it neared midday ? I went back and beat this place most carefully, and was 
rewarded by killing the longest, thinnest, and worst-skinned tiger I ever shot ; 
he lay in the very last bush. I killed him as he lay, before he rose up, with 
a single ball. I had known of this tiger by his size and manginess, and had 
been looking for him and some of his relations for days. He had not killed 
any cattle lately, but in the last bush was a dead sow, which had not been 
long killed ; it was not cold, and blood was running from wounds in the neck. 
Without doubt, the slaughter of this sow was the reason why the two boars 
left their jungle at that late time in the day ; but for them I should not have 
shot that tiger. 

Tigers often roar, and disclose their whereabouts by so doing; and at 
times they move about most silently, and their footfall makes no noise, even 
on dry leaves. 

One morning in spring I got news that some tigers were roaring greatly in 

some jungles which I knew well ; they were at some distance from my house. 

It was imperative that I should preside in office at some important revenue 

sales all that forenoon. I therefore sent on the elephants, and said I would 

ride over to the place as early in the afternoon as I could. When I got there 

I found that there were three large patches of thick bush- and tree-jungle ; 

these stood in an extensive plain of high grass, which was then being burnt 

and on fire in many places. The wind was very high, and the flames roared 

and smoked, and the air was hot and stifling ; the noise of the wind and the 

burning prevented one's voice from being heard almost. Time was short. I 

elected to beat the middle patch first. Scouts were placed, and the jungle was 

well searched, but no luck so far. Then I went to a second piece of jungle, 

and while the elephants were commencing to beat at the frirther end I 

distinctly heard tigers calling to each other in the patch of jungle which had 

not yet been touched. By dint of much blowing of the horn I always took 

in the howdah, I got the elephants to come to me, and arranged to beat this 

last jungle towards a strip not eighty yards broad, where I made sure of a shot ; 

and they came, almost before I was ready, into the strip. But I could not 

catch sight of them ; they stopped under the tree in which I had put a scout. 

He was greatly frightened, and shrieked out, " There are two ! there are two ! 

They will kill me I they will eat me ! '* His cries made the tigers bolt ; but, 

alas 1 they went out the wrong side and got back to the thick jungle. It was 

already getting dusk. I beat this jungle well, but the beaters gave no sign. 

Suddenly my chuprassy touched me and pointed, and one of the tigers was 

standing looking at me ; he had passed close somehow, and got past me 

without being noticed, even by the two elephants I had at the best spot of 



130 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

yantage I could choose. I saw his head and chesty and fired and hit^ I do not 
know exactly where. He sprang up with a roar^ and got into dense leafy 
cover. I got the elephants together again ; but it was now rather dark^ and 
the mahouts distinctly refiised to go into the jungle in the dark. I left the 
elephants^ howdah^ guns, and my shikarry in the nearest village^ and before 
daybreak next morning I started on horseback and rode to the place^ and 
began hunting again. I found the spot where I had wounded the tiger> and 
blood; and easily followed trail. Budderuddeen worked it out skilfully^ and 
we followed it for more than five miles through grass and different kinds of 
jungle for several hours^ but I never got up to the tiger nor ascertained its 
fate. This was pure ill luck. If I had had a companion with me or more 
daylight I might have killed those tigers. There was no kill^ so probably they 
would have shifted their quarters had I not gone to them the first day. I 
never could make out why those tigers chose to be so particularly noisy on 
this occasion^ though I have heard tigers call occasionally^ and sometimes at 
night. They do not roar loudly, but make a short grunting kind of deep 
growl. I should say a tiger, as a rule, was a very silent animal. 

If you have to guard a point of jungle,, and to wait quietly for some time 
for game to be driven towards you, a single elephant soon gets uneasy and 
nervous ; she keeps moving about, and after a little is ready to bolt away at 
the slightest alarm. You should always have a companion to stand with her; 
this will give her courage and keep her still. Once, when rather short of ele- 
phants, I was having a piece of forest jungle beaten towards me. Anything 
from a tiger to a hare, from a peafowl to a bush-quail, might have offered 
itself. I was on a very staunch elephant, from whose back many a rhinoceros 
and tiger had been killed, and with a good mahout. As I watched silently I 
heard pit-pat on the dry leaves, and so did the elephant. The footfall came 
nearer and nearer, till, just at the edge of the jungle where I was standing, a 
jungle-hen gave her single chuck-chuck of alarm. My elephant, who had 
already been fidgetting, went clean off in terror for quite two miles before she 
could be calmed. She was nervous the whole day after this. If once ele- 
phants get demoralized and nervous in this manner, the feeling spreads, and 
the whole number sometimes lose all pluck for a time. I have heard jungle- 
fowl and hares coming towards me often, but though tigers have often come 
to the edge of jungles when I have been watching, I do not remember to have 
heard the noise of their feet. It is very exciting when you are expecting to 
get a shot at a tiger to see the grass waving and to know that something is 
approaching. Occasionally a hare may sneak out ; a deer generaUy smells the 
elephant; a boar often makes a sudden rush with tremendous grunts and 
causes great commotion ; and sometimes I have seen a tiger just put out his 
head and take a cahn, quiet look at things, and retreat as silently as he 
came. 

One of my elephants never crossed the track of a tiger without making a 



DESTRUCTION CAUSED BY TIGERS. 131 

peculiar noise and striking her trunk on the ground. She was perfectly 
reliable, though at first I did not know it^ and so lost a splendid tiger. She 
gave the sign, and I was on the qui vive, but suddenly three or four hogs 
rushed noisily off and disturbed the whole line. I thought it was at them 
that she was making that peculiar noise, and I beat on to the end of that grass. 
When quite at the other end, at least three hundred yards off, a large hairy- 
headed male tiger walked slowly into other long grass. It was in the rains — 
the plain was covered with feathery-topped grass, boundless in extent, and I 
never got on terms with that tiger. 

Tigers are, I consider, blamed for a much greater share in the destruction 
of human life than ought fairly to be laid to their charge in Eastern Bengal. 
When once a person is killed by any wild animal it is invariably at first said 
that a tiger killed him. I believe leopards are much more destructive, and 
the mischief they do is attributed to tigers. Leopards sneak about villages 
and lie concealed in gardens and hedges ; they will enter through doors and 
windows ; they feed greatly on village dogs and goats, and when pressed by 
hunger seize sleeping women and children ; they creep into curious holes 
and comers, hide in leafy branches, and frequent the covered-in gardens where 
the leaf eaten with the betel-nut grows ; they prey on smaller animals and 
seek them as their regular food — animals and things that tigers do not come 
after. They are found, as a rule, much nearer to villages and houses than 
tigers. Tigers prey on cattle, however large they may be, on buffaloes wild 
and tame, on deer, the larger kinds for choice ; they kiU hogs, and follow 
game in the regular migrations which graminivorous animals are obliged to 
make in search of succulent herbage and proper drinking-water. But the 
leopard remains much more in one place ; he feeds on any small thing he can 
get. He never, or hardly ever, attacks buffaloes or full-grown cattle. There 
were leopards near my house at M ymensing which I almost knew by sight 
from seeing them when hunting with fox-hounds or when pig-sticking or 
coursing hares, and when necessary I used to take friends out and show them 
leopards at once. But the destruction done by these leopards was scarcely 
worth notice, and complaints were unknown. But the moment a tiger (or a 
pair or more of them, for they go as often in parties as singly) established 
himself near a village, he made himself known and feared : cattle were 
killed ; men were afraid ; reports were sent to tiger-killing sportsmen, and in 
one way or another the tigers were made to move off, or the place was 
abandoned and the cattle takeu elsewhere. Tiger-shooting, as a rule, goes on 
in jungles and grassy plains where game resort, and where large herds of 
cattle and buffaloes are fed and tended by herdsmen who live in temporary 
abodes at a distance from their village homes. Few of these Gowalas get 
killed by tigers; the tigers apparently prefer to feed on deer, hogs, and 
cattle, and when these become scarce, or are driven off, the tigers follow or 
go right away to distant jungles in search of food. 

k2 



182 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Lbttea No. 83« 

Tigen attracted to the Bame spots. When one is killed) another may be expected after a 
few seasons. — Tigers as a rule haunt distant places. Leopards generally live near 
villages. — Tigers hide in very light jungle, and are sometimes passed by. Often leave 
heavy jungles at once : sometimes cling to them till the last. — Value of a Shikany. — 
Beaters. — Different jungles. Sometimes uselessly overgrown, but get reduced by 
burning. — ^Patches and sides of nullahs. — Ohurs and tamarisk. — ^Forests. — ^Bhowal 
jungles. Rose-bush. Null. — Tanks. Taradham. — ^Cane-brakes. — Screw-pine. 

It has always been remarked how tigers come to certain parts of a district 
at certain times of the year and are absent at others. I have killed tigers 
over and over again in the same nullahs and in the same spots almost ; you 
would almost think it was last year's tiger come to life again. But leopards 
seem to cling to the neighbourhood where they were bred^ and to haunt it all 
the year round. Hogs often kill human beings ; they will attack people 
who interfere with them. Tigers can be driven away by fires and incessant 
annoyance^ and it is extremely rare for a tiger to attack a large body of men. 
More destruction to human life occurs from snake-bites^ especially In the 
rains^ than from all the dangerous quadrupeds in Bengal put together. To a 
certain extent tigers do good by keeping down the increase of deer and hogs^ 
both of which prefer to feed on valuable crops. Leopards do no appreciable 
good in this way. In almost all the best beats I knew^ where deer and hogs 
most abounded and were found together^ tigers as a rule were to be expected 
and were generally found or heard of ; but it was extremely remarkable that 
though leopards are far more numerous than tigers^ how few were met with 
in general shooting. In looking at the bags made at the great sporting 
parties you will see so many tigers^ bears, buffaloes, deer, and winged game, 
but the proportion of leopards killed is small. In short, tigers do not haunt 
villages or populous neighbourhoods, and leopards almost invariably prefer 
to be near villages where they can prey on pariah dogs, cats, goats, sheep, and 
domestic rather than large or fierce animals inhabiting forests or extensive 
jungles. 

Very constantly I have gone to try and avenge the death of some mau, 
woman, or child said to have been killed by a tiger, and it has turned out 
that the murder was the work of a leopard. I cannot, however, call to my 
recollection, nor find in my diary, any instance where a leopard was reported 
to have done the mischief when a tiger really was the culprit. I have killed 
many tigers who had taken at least one man's life, but I never killed a 
habitual man-eater. The old, toothless, bare-skinned or mangy tiger who fed 
solely on human beings, because he was too old apd weak to catch deer and 
hogs, never came my way ; I believe he is only to be found in books. But 
I have known several nuschievous leopards that lived and fed apparently 
entirely on what they could get by nightly prowlings in villages. Leopards 



TTGER-HAUNTS. 138 

make nearly as loud noises as tigers at nighty and the Indian spirit of exag- 
geration is apt to magnify^ so that all information regarding the size or 
mischief done by any reported wild beast should be discounted or accepted as 
only partially correct. 

A tiger will hide himself in places where a cat or a harci you would think, 
might be easily seen; they reduce themselves to the smallest possible 
compass and choose spots where the colour and markings of their skins 
correspond with the roots and stalks of plants. I have had a tiger shown to 
me asleep^ and though within distance of his spring I have only been able to 
distinguish him after very careful examination. I have come to the very last 
bush of screw-pine jungle and almost have left it as untenanted^ when a tiger^ 
larger apparently than the bush itself^ has appeared from under it. I have 
beaten all the nice and likely jungle^ when I had positive and certain 
information that a tiger was close to me, and have found him finally in a 
patch of weeds only high enough, I would have thought, to have given cover to 
a civet cat. I have known a tiger almost conceal himself on the bare muddy 
sand of a river bank, and again I have known them retreat at once to the 
thickest, densest, and most impracticable jungle near. I have known them 
leave thick jungles almost at the first noise of the beating elephants ; I have 
known them also remain crouching till the elephant has all but trod on them. 
If you have reliable information that a tiger has entered a jungle just before 
you came to it, if you can find no trace of its exit it is generally worth while 
to beat it again and again till you can account for your want of success. 
Under all these circumstances the value of your own shikarry is to be tested, 
and Budderuddeen's skill and persistence were often put to trial and he very 
seldom disappointed me. His ability to distinguish between a footmark a few 
hours old and one quite fresh, and his power of keeping an old boards prints 
separate from those of the great sows, amounted to a kind of instinct. It 
constantly happened that ground was covered with footmarks, some a week^ 
some a day, and some not an hour old; but these never caused, him to lose 
time. I trusted him as a huntsman trusts the challenge of his most valued 
hound^ and in tall grass followed the sign of his hand with perfect confidence. 
Before I relate more tiger-himting adventures I may as well allude to the 
different kinds of jungles and resorts most generally met with in the best 
districts. I know nothing of dry rocky grounds^ or caves, or beats for tigers 
with bodies of men carrying drums and musical instruments. Almost all 
the tiger-shooting in Eastern Bengal is carried on from howdahs on elephants. 
Beaters may be used for deer, jungle-fowl, and partridges, and occasionally 
for hogs ; but the latter are fierce^ and savage hogs will defy any army of 
beaters. It would be murder to send imarmed beaters into a grass-jungle to 
beat up a royal Bengal tiger; but there is a certainty that no Bengalee 
beater could be induced to do such a thing. The utmost that could be done 
would be for the beaters to go a few yards out of sight and then get all 



184 SPORT IN EASTERN BENQAU 

together and shout. A Bengalee will snfifer pain conrageoosly^ bat he is 
totally wanting in active courage or positive pluck of any kind. He in no 
way resembles a Seikh or a Ooorkah^ and you may rely on his bolting on 
every possible occasion. 

Almost all the uncultivated plains of Eastern Bengal are grassy. In the 
rains the various kinds of grass grow to a height of from three to sixteen 
feet. There are grasses with stems nearly as thick as bamboos^ and from 
these you can find every dimension of grass till you reach the silky grass 
used for thatch and for mat-makings and the spreading doob-grass^ which is 
as good as food for your horses. Elephant-grass and bamboo-grass^ kashia 
and ooloo and sun-grass^ null and nurcot^ and many other names you will 
soon hear. I do not pretend to know about these botanically. The shorter 
grass is generally cut for thatching ; the long coarse grass is burnt as much 
as it can be as soon as it gets dry enough. The plains which cannot be 
beaten to any advantage in September become nearly bare in February. As 
the tall foliage gets burnt down and the cover restricted to patches^ and 
when the green null and that grass which grows in a damp soil alone are 
to be seen fringing the numerous watercourses^ or nullahs^ which drain the 
plains^ sport is at its best^ and you know exactly where to beat. Plains and 
the banks of watercourses^ when not covered with thick tree^ and bush^ and 
thorny jungle^ and in the neighbourhood of forests and hills^ are the spots 
which all Bengal sportsmen most delight to visit in the spring. In most 
districts there are churs or alluvial lands which^ in addition to grass jungles 
similar to those on the plains^ aboimd in patches of tamarisk or jhow. This 
jungle is always green and seldom gets burnt j it is a favourite resort for 
game^ and except when very oid^ when it becomes like fir^ tamarisk is easily 
beaten. 

In some districts^ Dacca and Mymensing for instance^ there are extensive 
forests covered with lowish trees, chiefly saul or Shorea robtista, and 
innumerable varieties of trees and shrubs to which I never knew names put ; 
grass generally grows high among these trees. The whole jungles are burnt ; 
the grass burns quickly in March and April, and scorches the trees and 
restricts their growth. Water is often scarce in these jungles in the hot 
months, and game deserts the interior of these forests, except when driven 
there. The Bhowal forest and the Muddoopore forests are places such as I 
refer to. About these forests are scattered valleys, uninhabited, with 
perpetual water in their centres, surrounded with patches of rosebush-jungle 
and green null-grass, which are never burnt. In the rains these spots are 
inundated, and game cannot exist there ; but after December, and till the 
rains come again, such delightful places attract all the game, carnivorous and 
herbivorous, and all birds, whether they be land-birds, web-footed or wading- 
birds, bustards, cranes, ducks, geese, or snipe. These are the spots you 
should hunt out and visit at the proper times ; these were the scenes of my 



J 



JUNGLES AND TANKS. 186 

best sport. From such splendid rosebush- and null-jungles I have turned 
out the biggest and fiercest of boars ; in them I have killed the heaviest of 
fighting tigers, and buffaloes and sambhur^ swamp-deer and bears; of 
floriken and partridges^ black and khyah, I have made large bags. From 
these rose-bushes I have stalked up to and fired into flocks of ducks of almost 
all the kinds procurable in England^ and many not known out of Asia. 
Here the graceful sayrus crane plays and dances and is seldom shot ; here 
also^ in the winter^ come large flocks of coolen or common crane^ which are 
invariably followed and shot at. If bagged there is no better bird on table 
than a crane killed on the 1st of February. In fact there are no places in 
India so delightful for all sorts of sport or which I delighted more in than 
these lone valleys near the Muddoopore or Bhowal forests, or at the foot of 
the Shooshung and Garrow Hills, and I believe similar enjoyable plains and 
vaUeys exist all along the base of the Eastern Himalayas. But southward of 
Dacca, that is in the districts of Tippera and Chittagong, few of these valleys 
are to be found ; the hills covered with jungle quite to their base are met by 
cultivated fields, and rice grows tiU it touches the hills; this is the jungle- 
fowl land — a very nice shooting country in its way also, but far inferior to 
the rose-bush and grass-covered valleys of Mymensing. 

In most parts of Bengal, in country once populated and since abandoned, 
as also near flourishing villages, large tanks are to be found; the high, 
wide banks on the sides of these tanks are generally covered with thickets of 
thorny bushes very hard to penetrate. Hogs, deer, and leopards are fond of 
these banks. The tanks are generally well filled with water, widely fringed 
with rushes and reeds. Very often these tanks, when neglected, are filled 
with a tall^ very leafy^, and strongly smelling plant that reaches a height of 
about twelve feet. We used to call this plant wild cardamum, irom its smell ; 
one of its native names was '' taradham.'' The same plant grows in extensive 
patches in marshy ground at the foot of the hills in the Purneah Terai and is 
often frequented by rhinoceroses. In the districts in which I generally shot 
it was a secure refuge for all kinds of game ; the soil on which it grew was 
muddy or ponky, and would bear neither elephant, horse, nor man, though 
apparently fitted for tigers, hogs, and deer; it never got dry or combustible, 
and we never could get animals out even of the smallest patches of taradham. 

Cane-brakes or bSnt-jungles abound all over the plains and villages of 
Bengal ; these give shelter to hogs, deer, and every kind of game. BSnt is 
very diflBcult to beat ; but good elephants can be gradually driven through it, 
and if a tiger or a boar retreats to it, he ought, by perseverance, to be made 
to leave it. 

Screw-pine, or Pandanus (called '' kewahbon'^), is common in small patches 
near rivers, and forms favourite cover for tiger and hogs ; it is very thorny 
and beaters can do nothing with it, but elephants should turn any animal 
out of it. 



186 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 84. 

Hill forests not practicftble for sport. — Good ground in Assam, which may he reached near the 
Garrow Hills. — Shikanry should look up all grounds in the hot weather and early rains. — 
Dinkyhon. — Various districts. — Mymensing; confine my future remarks to that district. — 
Panch Tikree. Sowdaugor liahout puts me below instead of above a Tiger. — ^A few 
days' sport at Tikree with two planters. Arrangements. KiU two Tigers. Elill a Bear, 
Hog-Beer, and Floriken. 

The trees in the Bhowal and Muddoopore jangles are not very thick, or 
high, or thorny, and these forests can be traversed either on foot with 
difficulty, or easily on an elephant. But the jangles on the low hills of 
Chittagong, Tippera, Sylhet, and Mymensing are covered with bamboos and 
thorny and thick strong trees, and twining creepers render passage to a man 
difficult : an elephant slowly makes his way through these jangles. But 
neither these forests nor these hills can be considered as sporting ground ; 
they serve as nurseries for every kind of animal, and large deer perhaps live 
in them all the year round, but by the generality of game they are regarded 
as sanctuaries from the hunter and as secluded retreats for bringing up their 
young. Jungle-fires and want of water send most of the game after the 
autumn to the grassy valleys and the neighbourhood of succulent crops. 
Ranges of low hills covered with jungles and separated by grassy valleys, 
perhaps several miles in length, exist on the borders of Bengal ; in such 
valleys sport is always good when the jungle is reduced in size. Hill- 
buffaloes, and I am told the gour of Assam and Burmah, resort to such 
places. Personally I visited few such spots ; I once beat up some between 
Comilla and Agurtollah, where the Rajah of Tippera lives, but it was at a 
bad season of the year and we got no sport. There are splendid hunting- 
grounds of this description in Lower Assam, near where the Brahmapootra 
touches the Garrow Hills. This I believe to be the best ground for sport 
now to be got at by Anglo-Bengalees. There are no better jungles than 
hoogia, to which I have often referred : this is a kind of tail flag or bulrush ; 
it grows only on moist soil ; it is not burnt, but much cut for thatching- 
purposes, near marshy grounds. Hidgel trees, which resemble dwarf oaks, 
grow, and grass and null and sometimes rose-bushes flourish among the 
hidgel-jungles. Hogs and buffaloes are fond of such places in the hot 
season. 

Deserted villages, the sites of which are often covered with mandar and 
pulass trees, which are most resplendent when in flower, and mangoes that 
yield food for monkeys and bogs, are often grand places for shikar in March. 
Tour shikarry should be able to tell you precisely where you ought to go so 
as to make certain of sport. In the rains he will know the high and dry 
spots ; in the winter he will probably direct you to the neighbourhood of 



SPORTING.DISTRIOTS. 187 

cnltivatecl grounds ; in the early^ hot season lie will take you to the green 
unbumt patches and the grassy sides of nullahs. At some time of the year 
and at different seasons each of these varying hunting-grounds should be 
looked up. 

In the islands of the Megna and in the Eastern Backergunge Soonderbunds^ 
I came across jungles of high tree-like fem^ called^ in the language of the 
country^ '' dinkybon/' These jungles formed splendid shelter for game : hogs 
at Siddhee were very fond of them^ and tigers and rhinoceros lived in them 
on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The leaves rustled, and it was impossible 
to move quietly through dinkybon-jungle ; but it was very easy to beat. I 
never met with this jungle in any districts north of Backergunge and Noak- 
hoUy. I do not, at present, recollect any other particular kinds of jungle to 
bring to your notice. If I were asked to describe the kind of gix)und I 
prefer most to beat, I should reply : the sides of a nullah in the middle of 
which water was to be found in the months of March and April, and whose 
banks were edged with a wide margin of ground bearing null, rose-bush, and 
leafy shrub-jungle bordered by open well-burnt grassy plains, and situated 
not far from forest-covered hills or extensive tree-jungles. 

No member of the Bengal Civil Service could give an exhaustive description 
of the sport to be got in each separate district of Eastern Bengal from his 
own personal experience ; it takes several years to master the details of a 
single district. I have been with tiger-shooting parties, in the course of 
twenty-five years, in Purneah, Maldah, Rajshahye, and parts of Bungpore 
and Bogra; but I could give no account of these districts which would 
authoritatively describe the whole of any of them. NoakhoUy and Dacca I 
knew well ; there was no thanna, pei^nnah, large village, river, or possible 
sporting-place in these two districts I was not acquainted with. I knew 
Mymensing well also: it was a large district; I looked on it as the best 
sporting district in Bengal. I failed to obtain an appointment to it in the 
days of my magistracy and coUectorate duties ; but I was stationed there for 
more than three years as judge, and for six years, as Commissioner of Dacca, 
I visited the district regularly at times. Still, though I worked the district 
as a sportsman for nine years, I was not able to visit many of its best 
pergunnahs. 

The whole region stretching from Sylhet along the north of Mymensing, 
at the foot of the Shooshung Hills, was almost unknown to me. I know it 
abounded in large game, and that its jungles were hardly ever disturbed. 
This region was distant, thinly populated, devoid of any roads, difficult of 
access, liable to inundation, very seldom visited by any Europeans. As it 
lies in the direct route to nowhere, and possesses no large towns or marts, it 
may long remain a stronghold for tigers, rhinoceros, buffaloes, and sambhur 
and swamp-deer. In my remaining letters on tiger-shooting from the 
howdah I shall confine myself to sport in the Mymensing district. 



138 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

The three most favourite beats, at a distance from headquarters, were the 
Panch Tikree valley, the churs bordering the Brahmapootra np to Lower 
Assam, and the Toldoodung valley. 

I visited Panch Tikree at least a dozen times ; it was a first-rate place for 
every kind of sport, and I shot there at all times of the year — ^in the Doorga- 
Poojah holidays, at Christmas, and at Easter. There were high grounds which 
afforded sport when the valley was like a lake ; there where streams on whose 
banks you could shoot half the day down one side, returning in the afternoon 
up the other. Peafowl, bears, and sambhur were to be got on the side of the 
Bhowal forest; buffaloes, hog-deer, and partridges in the dense rose and 
null-jungles of the centre ; the patches of grass all along the valley on both 
sides held hogs and floriken, and many times I turned up more tigers than 
one in a day. As there was a road nearly to the sporting-ground, I could 
ride or drive almost all the way, even on a moonlight night, in a few hours. 
I think that, next to Chur Siddhee, Panch Tikree was the spot I most liked 
in India for sport. 

It was here that my Mahout Sowdaugor once put me almost under a tiger. 
A party of us were just ready for a long trudge towards the east for all kinds 
of game, fur or feather. Breakfast was over and the guns were being put in 
the howdahs, when news was brought of a kill close by, almost within sight. 
We were taken to a small patch of high dry grass on the bank of a steep nullah ; 
scarcely had we formed line and began beating before there was an awful 
rumpus. Two tigers certainly, I believe more, probably three, had been all 
tearing at a poor cow together, and they started in different directions 
roaring and frightening the elephants. So quickly had they been found that 
no one was quite ready : some shots were fired ; I do not think much harm 
was done ; but Sowdaugor instantly followed one tiger in such haste that my 
elephant half tumbled, half slipped to the very bottom of the nullah. 
I was holding on to the front rail, like grim death, with both hands, when I 
saw a tiger on a sort of a ledge, his feet were just level with my solah topee, 
and I could have touched him with a hog-spear ; luckily he sprung upwards, he 
might just as easily have jumped on me or the mahout. It was minutes before 
my elephant could climb up to the bank and reach a spot were we could see. 
I abused Sowdaugor with every epithet that long knowledge of low Ben- 
galee had stored in my mind : for years I had tried to knock into his 
brain the fact that if he went down into a nullah he must prevent my 
getting a shot ; he was foolhardy in his pluck, and would force his elephant 
anywhere and through and close to anything. When an elephant is rolling 
and tumbling about in his way, the sportsman in the howdah must hold him- 
self and his guns in it or he may be smashed or thrown out. When I did 
get to the top I found the whole party scattered, and it was reported that 
several tigers had gone away in various directions : no doubt each tiger, when 



A FEW DAYS' SPORT AT TIKREE. 189 

seen three times^ was spoken of as three tigers, and so on ; but there were two, 
and I belieye three. 

Order having been restored, I put my friends into their places and 
placed a few elephants under the charge of each, and we began a proper 
systematic beat up the nullah : this resulted in success, and we had some fun 
killing a very good tiger, but we got no more in this excellent patch ; but 
for Sowdaugor's foolery, in preventing all possibility of my either shooting or 
marking, we ought to have killed all that were feasting at the cow. 

We next followed one of the tigers which had crossed the open plain and 
taken to extensive unbumt grassy jungles intersperced with nullahs : we put 
this individual up more than six times ; he was the most wandering active 
tiger I ever pursued, he never seemed to rest in any jungle. We hunted for 
hours and for miles, and at times the chase was exciting ; we never got fair 
shots at him, and in the afternoon we gave him up and took to deer and 
partridges and floriken on a beat towards camp. 

Once in spring time, when grass is always fairly burnt down and marshy 
land as dry and solid as ever it becomes in the year, I arranged for a four 
days' general shooting expedition with two planter friends. We were to camp 
at Tikree, which gives its name only to a small part of the valley, and shoot 
over the best ground we could hear of within reach. Budderuddeen was 
sent to obtain all possible information. We all knew the ground pretty well 
and expected good sport. 

D., the planter from SoobimkhoUy on the Brahmapootra river, was an 
old friend and a good shot both with ball and shot; he and I had ridden 
hogs and buffaloes, and shot geese and wildfowl many years before in Tippera. 
M., the other planter from Bygonbari, was a steady man in the howdah 
and accustomed to shooting tigers and large game. Both these gentlemen 
had their own elephants and howdahs and good mahouts ; but I had to lend 
them both guddies after the first day, as theirs were inferior. We were all 
fond of hog-hunting, but the planters were not very well mounted at this 
time, and we had agreed not to attempt to ride hogs, for it almost always 
spoils both hog-hunting and shooting if you try to carry on both sports at 
the same time. 

I drove and rode after sunset to a small collection of huts on the roadside, 
where we put up horses, and from this place I went a few miles on an 
elephant to the camp, which was pitched on the bank of the Bunsee river. 
Before turning in for the night we discussed the campaign with the shikarry 
and the mahouts. 

Budderuddeen simply declared that there was every possible kind of sport 
you could desire, that ground and jungles were in the very best order and 
undisturbed — tigers, buffaloes, hogs, large and small deer, bears, floriken, 
black and khyah partidges, ducks, wildfowl, and snipe ; but the tigers, which 



140 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

to my knowledge had been doing a deal of damage for many weeks^ .bad 
located themselves at least five miles off^ on the opposite side of the valley. 
The arrangement settled was that the elephants shonld get all their chara 
(t. e. food for the day) in the early mornings that the servants shonld have their 
proper meals and be prepared for long days of work^ and that we shonld 
start off after breakfast. The tigers were to be the first objects of pnrsnit. 

So we all made a good start. My battery as usnal consisted of the Daw- 
Jacob rifle, which carried curiously-shaped blunt conical balls of more than 
two-ounce weight, a breech-loading smooth-bore by Daw, and two smooth- 
bore and muzzle-loaders by Dickson. The planters had plenty of guns and 
rifles, but of varying bores and kinds. We did not waste time by beating up 
patches of grass on the road to the tiger-jungles; these, when we got to 
them, turned out to be thick patches of null and grass, with rose-bushes 
growing close to water, and nullahs — wide spaces which for half the year were 
so inundated that nothing except a bird could exist in them; but from 
February to April buffaloes and cattle, brought from a distance, were fed and 
milked here, the herdsmen living for the time in specially prepared huts, 
termed " gowal barees.'' The herdsmen were prepared for us, and brought 
copious draughts of smoky milk in hollow bamboo utensils, and declared that 
they were quite mined by tigers who took a cow at least daily. 

The jungle was quite sufficiently extensive to require good and careful 
beating, but we were all well up to the work ; and when in due time a tiger 
was roused, we kept the line close and even and beat the tiger quite to the 
end of the nullah side, where he was forced to disclose himself, and then we 
all saluted him pretty nearly at the same time ; a good number of bullets 
were fired, with fatal effect in two instances, and we killed two fine tigers 
almost as soon as we were able to fire at them. I believe there was only one 
pair ; we found no signs of more, and agreed to commence the attack now on 
all and sundry kinds of game. The ducks and the wildfowl generally were 
flying in large flocks ; they had been disturbed by the firing, so we let them 
alone, as also the khyah partridges and the deer and hogs, which were 
numerous in this damp low part of the valley. We went nearer to the 
Bunsee river, which skirts the Bhowal jungle for several score of miles. 
Here the ground was dry; grass of a different kind was burnt, and only 
patches remained, and scattered all about, near the river bank, were thickets, 
with trees and taradham, which would not bum, and here and there some 
patches of rose-bushes. In one of these latter I turned up a fine bear ; but, 
in spite of my mahout's signal, I thought it was a large boar and did not 
shoot. The planters, however, got it ; it charged one of them furiously, and 
made a deal of noise and died with painful groans ; it was a very large bear, 
and had a skin in good order. After this we put up a fine buck gous or 
sambhur ; it, however, at once rushed across the river into the forest and we 
lost it. We bagged several hog-deer and one floriken. 



BUFFALOES, D0CKS, ETC. 141 



Letter No. 85« 

Go after Buffidoes. Kill two. — ^Kill Ducks and Snipe. — Beat the banks of the Bunsee. — 
Sambhur Deer. — Peafowl and Jungle-fowl, Black Partridges, Hares, Floriken, Godwits. 
— ^A rare kind of Hare. — The total bag. — Strangers request me to show them sport. I 
endeavour to do so. Journey in haste from Dacca to the banks of the Brahmapootra. 
Put up a Tiger just before dark. Try the shouting dodge : it answers. Home by 
compass and starlight. — Another day at Tikree. 

The next day^ before breakfast^ the herdsmen who had been present at the 
killing of the tigers brought news of a herd of buffaloes ; these were still 
further away than the tigers^ and the day was nearly half over before we 
sighted them. The null-jungles were very extensive^ and a great deal of the 
ground was so muddy and deep and difficult for elephants, that by 4 p.m. we 
had only managed to kill two female buffaloes, and we were eight or nine 
miles from camp. We all voted buffalo-shooting from howdahs to be 
butchery and slow fun. On the way home we tried a little duck-shooting ; 
we carefully examined the position of the flocks with reference to shelter 
behind which to approach them, and then we let drive into the sitting 
flocks with the first barrels, and fired second barrels into them as they rose ; 
in this way we bagged eleven or twelve couple, chiefly blue- winged teal ; 
then we blazed away at the snipe, which were numerous and lay well in the 
little cultivation which there was at this time of the year. It consisted of 
borudhan, a kind of rice grown in the spring on lands which only then 
became dry enough to be cultivated. We did not reach camp till long after 
dark. 

Next day we started from close to camp and beat down the sides of the 
Bunsee stream, and all the patches of dry grass on the plain and several 
thickets of trees and shrubs near the river, but detached from the forest : we 
killed two very large sambhur does. Then stuck steadily to thick cover 
which required to be well beaten out. It takes a long time to put a heavy 
sambhur on an elephant's back. When we had padded the second of these 
deer, we sent them off to camp. Some beautiful peacocks and their hens 
and some jungle-fowl afforded sport from these thickets, and the grassy 
patches standing far out in the open plains were full of hog-deer, hogs, black 
partridges, hares, and here and there a floriken. The hog-deer were wilder 
than usual ; there was no firing at them in the grass, they took flight at once 
over the open plains: the way we missed them was marvellous; I know 
of nothing much harder to hit than a hog-deer at beyond seventy yards when 
the elephant from which you are shooting is moving or shaking. We bagged 
six I think, and two floiikens, ten couple of black partridges, two couple of 
peafowl, two couple and a half of jungle-fowl, ten hares, some civet cats of 



142 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

the large kind and some of the small — ^genets, I believe, is the name — and 
we put up several splendid boars. I always have regretted that I never 
speared a hog in this valley; but, as I have before remarked^ often in 
Mymensing hog-hunting was superseded by shooting from the howdah. 

Next morning M. and D. got up rather early and took a turn on foot at 
another jheel in a different direction. The first thing we saw was a very 
large floek^ several hundreds of birds flying about. Budderuddeen called 
them '^ chota-choppers/' which meant little curlews. M. and D. got well up 
to them^ and in the discharge of the four barrels we knocked over twenty- 
eight ; they turned out to be godwits. We then tried to get some golden 
plover^ but failed to circumvent them ; after this^ for the little time that 
remained before breakfast^ we shot snipe ; these birds when disturbed seemed 
to me to go away to the forest for shelter. 

In this day's shooting we tried the western side of the valley ; the whole 
juDgle on this side consisted of thatching and other grass^ very good for hog- 
deer^ hares, and partridges, of which we made good bags. We got three 
florikens (these delicious birds are looked upon as prizes, much the same as 
a woodcock in an ordinary pheasant-battue in England), and we also killed 
two of those curious bristly hares called, in Jerdon's ^Mammals,' Lqpta 
hispidus. I never met with this animal except near the Bhowal jungles ; 
very little is known of it ; its skin tears so easily that I entirely failed to 
preserve a single skin all the time I was in India. I do not think there is 
one in the British Museum. Except sportsmen who have shot about Dacca 
and Mymensing I never met with anybody who knew anything about the 
animal at all, and Jerdon's account is meagre. When the expedition was 
over we made the bag out to be : two tigers, one bear, two buffaloes, five 
floriken, four peafowl, five jungle-fowl, two large sambhur or gous-deer, 
eighteen hog-deer, about fifty couple of partridges (mostly black), twenty or 
twenty-five hares, about twenty-four ducks (of which one pair were grey ducks 
and the rest blue-winged teal), a good number of common snipe, twenty-eight 
godwits, and a lot of miscellaneous odds and ends. This may not seem a 
wonderful bag for four days ; still I do not remember ever making a better, 
taking the variety into consideration and remembering that two tigers and a 
bear alone would have been thought to mean better luck than usual. I have 
still to write to you about the times when I killed more tigers in a day, and 
beats when the slaughter of deer was murderous ; but I never enjoyed an 
expedition of four days' continued sport more thoroughly, or passed a more 
agreeable time than I did with those two indigo-planters in the valley stretch- 
ing from Tikree southwards in the neighbourhood of the Bhowal forest. 

Writing of Tikree, I am reminded of an expedition which I was persuaded 
to get up at very little notice for the Earl of G., who had come out to see 
some sport in India. A Harrow friend of his, who I had known all my life, 
wrote and asked me to introduce both of them to a real tiger, and to give 



J 



SPORT NEAR THE BRAHMAPOOTRA. 148 

them some shooting at big game ; my friend had never seen anything bigger 
than a snipe since he left home, business haying tied him in the neighbourhood 
of Calcutta. I arranged for carrying on my official duties in the upper part 
of Mymensiug, and beat up for these two gentlemen some of the best ground 
on the churs near the Brahmapootra that I knew of. Unfortunately I had 
visited it twice in four preceding seasons ; no country will stand such constant 
attacks. The sport was not so good as I expected. We found no game on 
these churs except tigers, hares, a few fioriken and khyah partridges; our 
total bag in eight days was four tigers killed and two mismanaged, which we 
did not kill. I only allude to the expedition to tell you about the first tiger 
which Lord G. killed when it was almost dark. 

My friend and Lord G. came to Dacca by rail and steamboat, and slept 
one night at my home. By levying contributions of horses and carriages from 
friends, and by very hard work, driving the first forty miles or so to Birmee, 
then riding to Toke, then driving to Gaffergaon, and going the rest of the 
journey on horseback, we got to Mymensing station in twelve hours and a 
half, and in two more days we got to my camp at Dewangunge. It is no easy 
matter for even an experienced shikarry like I was, aided most kindly and 
ably by friends who lent me carriages and about fifteen horses, to transport 
three European gentlemen, two of them with most of their guns and luggage, 
to such a distant camp. In this instance I found every single thing for my 
guests — knives and forks, beds, baths, and towels, prog and grog, howdahs and 
elephants, all but clothing, batteries, and ammunition — and started in fair order 
in battle array on the 15th February, 1868. 

The first day we had no luck at all. I had not been able to have the 
country properly looked over by Budderuddeen, but both he and I knew it 
fairly. From our knowledge we were positive that there were several tigers 
on these churs : we came on plenty of tolerably recent kills, and footmarks 
abounded in every jhow-jungle. The cowherds would give no assistance ; 
they thought that if they gave information by which we might kill tigers, the 
ghosts of the tigers or relations would retaliate by slaughtering their cattle 
after we should leave. At the close of the second day, after the sun had set, 
I was trying to induce a herdsman to tell me where these tigers had taken up 
their abode. I caught sight of a tiger crossing an open sandy place going into 
a heavy patch of jhow-jungle, and I knew in one instant that we might kill 
him with luck, if light would only last. 

I told Lord G. that 1 would post him, with one elephant to keep him com- 
pany, at a spot where I felt sure the tiger would break in an attempt to return 
to the main jungles ; and I recommended him, if he should knock his tiger over 
with one shot, to follow up at once, and fire again and again into him, till he 
was dead, for he would get but one chance that evening. The patch of jhow 
was about five acres ; it was all about fifteen feet high, and completely hid the 
elephants. It would have been impossible to have shot from the inside of such 



144 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

a jungle^ and yet there was no difBculty in passing through it with the line 
of elephants. I took the centre myself^ put my friend on one side and Bud- 
deruddeen on the other^ and directed that every man and attendant should^ 
as soon as the line moved on, shout, and continue shouting as loud and con- 
tinuously as possible; and so we all did, and a very tidy hullabulloo we made. 
Before we were half through the jungle, and before men's lungs had b^un to 
fail or their tones to get hoarse, we heard first one shot, then another, and a 
third. I stopped shouting, blew my horn, and hurried forward, and found 
Lord O., and a short heavy male tiger which he had killed. Lord O. said the 
beast walked out close to him, and offered the easiest of shots ; he fell to the 
first shot, and was then easily disposed of. Had this tiger chosen to hang to 
the j how-jungle, or had he been only slightly wounded and gone back into 
it, we never could have bagged him in such darkness. I believe nothing 
but the shouting would have made him sneak quietly out as he did. 

This was so far satisfactory : the two guests had seen their first tiger. 
We padded him, and then came the march home to camp. I had a com- 
pass, and we steered by it and the stars over this lonely chur-land. We 
did not meet a single individual, nor had we a landmark of any sort till 
the white tents shone out in the bright starlight. We dined about 9 p.m., 
and after dinner superintended the skinning of the tiger by torchlight. 

The expedition had not been so fortunate as I expected, and we had found 
no large game except tigers, so, as our time was all but expired, I offered 
to give my friends a day of miscellaneous shooting in the Tikree country ; 
and on the 28th February we had our farewell day in that valley, killing 
ten hog-deer, fifteen brace of black partridges, thirteen hares, and one fiori- 
ken. Next day Lord G. went to SoobunkhoUy factory on the Brahma- 
pootra, and thence down stream to the railway at Goalundo. After working 
up arrears at the head station of Mymensing, I started for hog-hunting : 
but when riding the very first hog I got about the worst fall I ever had in 
my life ; my knee was so hurt that I had no strength in the saddle for more 
than a year, and for all that time I lost all the best fun. The hogs had 
peace for the whole time ; but after the rains I was well enough to shoot 
from a howdah. 



BEES AND TIGERS. 145 



Letteb No. 86. 

Bees at Mymenaiiig. — Bees and Tigers at Ghur GabeanL Difficulties at Gabaara, and how 
they were met — Ponlcy ground. — ^A Leopard ; one Tiger. — ^Divide forces and catch the 
Tigers on their way back to the bees. — ^A long shot — A Tiger on the open sands. — The 
benefit of a breech-loader. 

Mymensino is famous for bees and honey. The bees fixed their combs in the 
verandahs of my house^ and at times were great nuisances ; so I had them 
removed by professional honey-takers^ who cut down the combs and anointed 
the beams with garlic aud stinking stuff, and thus rid me of bees in my house 
for ever. I have known bees roused to anger during a pig-sticking party 
attack the elephants, horses, and men, and spoil the whole day's sport. 
Horses broke loose and were not caught till next day, elephants became un- 
manageable, and men were so stung that severe fever was brought on. Some 
of the hunters rushed into tanks and kept putting their heads under water. 
The best thing a mounted man can do under these circumstances is to ride fast 
up wind, through bushes or jungle if possible ; if he can put any high foliage 
between himself and the pursuers he will be safe. 

There was a place called Gabsara, where tigers had made a home for more 
than two years. Shikar parties had gone from the Bogra district more than 
once to this place, which was on the Mymensing side of the Brahmapootra, to 
kill these tigers, but had failed on account of a large colony of bees, which 
turned them out of the jungles. We thought it a stain on the honour of the 
Mymensing sportsmen to let Bogra men kill our tigers, so I lesolved to go 
for these Gabsara animals, and sent Budderuddeen to report. 

His report was discouraging. He came back and stated that tigers cer- 
tainly were numerous and the jungle easy enough for beating, but that the 
bees bad several enormous combs, and that, besides all this, there was a worse 
feature in the country, which, in his opinion, had prevented the former hunting- 
parties from having success. This was the nature of the ground or soil. The 
small chur of Gabsara consisted of light sandy soil brought down by the 
Brahmapootra river, which had hardened on the top of moist quicksand. The 
consolidated earth was not two feet in thickness, and elephants would not 
cross it for fear of being imbedded in the quicksand called ** phassun/' Here 
our Noakholly experience came to our assistance. Budderuddeen was a Noak- 
hoUy man, and had been with me in all my hog-hunting days on the Megna 
churs. I had a good revenue map of Gabsara chur, and made out with Bud- 
deruddeen the shape of the jungles and the course of the streams left as the 
large river gradually decreased in volume after the rains. It appeared that 
the bees were congregated all in one particular patch of jungle. I sent Bud- 
deruddeen and Sowdaugor and two elephants to study the places and arrange 



146 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

an attack ; they were to find out, if possible, where the elephants could cross 
the several phassuns, and then these crossings were to be made safe by thick 
layers of bushes, jhow, and grass jungle, and each crossing to be marked by 
sticking in a tall bamboo with a streamer atop, so that, when necessary, we 
might at once take the elephants to a practicable crossing-place. 

I think I had one companion part of the time, and that two more 
joined us. 

When I got to the ground I found that there were several practicable 
crossings. The first crossing was a curious sight, and considerably alarming 
to the nerves of men who were unaccustomed to phassun. As the ponderous 
elephants marched across the prepared places, the whole surface of the land 
on both sides for about a hundred yards waved about and undulated up and 
down, but fortunately we never once broke through the upper crust. I had 
seen elephants similarly managed in a hog-hunting party near Pubna before I 
went to Noakholly, so I was fairly confident that we should get over the 
phassun difficulty. 

Next we had to consider the bees. These I found had taken up their homes 
in one large patch of jungle. Of course this was the best jungle in the whole 
chur, and, under ordinary circumstances, would have been the most likely 
place for the tigers. What with the tigers and what with the bees, the jungly 
part of the chur and all the nice grassy grazing-ground close to it had been 
abandoned, and the cattle were fed at a considerable distance inland, so the 
tigers had to go to a distance for food, and were in the habit of retreating to 
these jungles for shelter. 

So I determined to leave the patch in which the bees were undisturbed. 
Bee& are much more vicious and irritable at certain times than they are 
at others. For instance, a whole colony of bees, following their queen, have 
been known to settle upon a man without stinging him, and to go off again 
after their queen without doing injury. The bees in my verandah were very 
spiteful at times, annoying everybody and every animal ; at other times they 
would be quite peaceable, and take no notice of anything short of positive 
interference. I believe at my visit to Gabsara they were in a pacific 
temper. 

It was Christmas-time : on the 24th December I began by beating a beau- 
tiful jungle not very far from the bees. W^e beat quietly away from their 
direction, and evidently soon disturbed game — probably more tigers than one. 
The jungle was of a kind often met with in the wide sandy plains near rivers — 
thin jhow, with patches of a flowery hybiscus plant and a low green, tender- 
leaved, strongly-smelling shrub, much frequented by hares and civet cats. 
While beating this I saw a large leopard standing still, and I bagged him with one 
shot. He measured nearly nine feet, was the largest leopard I ever killed, and 
nearly the .only one I ever found consorting with tigers. It seemed to me that 
the tigers we had disturbed had gone to the bee-jungle ; I declined to follow 



TIGERS AT GABSARA, 147 

them, and went on searching all the likely places to the eastward. We put 
up one fine tiger^ and, after the usual beating for nearly half an hour, got 
him into a comer and killed him. That was all done on the 24th. 

On the 25th, after a careful examination of the position of the jungles, and 
from the fact that several very fresh tracks showed that tigers were probably 
lying in some strips of jungles leading towards the bees, I arranged to go 
round by some of the prepared crossings and take up a position not very far 
from the bees; so if the others of the party should put up tigers and send them 
towards the bees, I could meet them on their road. For two hours I stood on 
the appointed spot, and reviewed all operations with a binocular. The mahouts 
and attendants wrapped themselves in blankets, and I had a cloth round my 
head. We were very silent. Several troops of bees came buzzing around, but 
did no harm. I saw in the far distance that my friends had found tigers, and 
heard several shots ; in fact they had put up some tigers, and after some 
time and a deal of shooting they bagged a tigress. Gradually, and after what 
appeared to me much needless delay, they seemed to be beating in my direc- 
tion, and at last a shot let me know that they had again come on a tiger. I 
had no concealment about me at all ; the three elephants stood together on 
the open sand as near the bee-patch as we dared. Presently a fine tiger came 
to the edge of the strip, evidently meaning to cross the open and go to the 
bees. He stood perfectly still at about one hundred and eighty yards, as well 
as I could judge. I took a steady aim with the Daw- Jacob rifle, and by great 
good luck struck him hard with a bullet weighing more than two ounces. 
This was, I think, the best long shot I ever made from a howdah in my life, 
though perhaps one at a bear in Bhowal was as good. The tiger gave a roar 
and went back to the strip. I hastened across the open, got to a marked 
crossing-place, and just reached the right place as the others came up; the 
tiger roared and charged splendidly, but I sent him back, and the others 
received him with a volley, and now three of the Oabsara tigers were dis* 

posed of. 

We had some sport with another. News was brought that a tiger had gone 
out on the sands in the direction of the river. There was positively no jungle 
at all — ^a few twigs of jhow which would not have hidden a curlew. A number 
of respectable Mahommedans, mostly mounted on wee Bengalee ponies, had 
been watching the sands since the tiger had been viewed, and a deputation of 
villagers had come to tell us. So we all started oflf, perhaps two hundred men 
on foot and twenty on ponies. We travelled along for miles on the solid 
cultivated lands ; the men on foot went along the sands, which were too 
treacherous to be trusted for elephants. After many miles we came to the 
watchers, and they declared that the tiger was somewhere between them and 
the river, that he certainly had never gone ofi^, and that the sands were firm. 
It seemed absurd ; but we made a long line and advanced a long way due west 
towards the river; and there certainly, from some depression in the ground^ 

l2 



148 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

got up a large fierce tiger^ and he at once came roaring towards us from at 
least two hundred yards off. The long scattered line of elephants took closer 
order and several shots were fired^ but most of the elephants^ my trusty one 
excepted^ took fright at the roaring ; they all got together in a heap^ and 
putting their heads in the centre^ kept their tails towards the tiger^ and were 
so uneasy and unmanageable that the men in the howdahs could get no 
shooting. One of these was an experienced shikarry, but he at this critical 
moment managed to put a large bullet into a barrel which was too small for 
it^ and he could not ram it down. Anyhow in the confusion the party was 
rendered powerless for the few important minutes^ during which my elephants 
were steady and I got all the fun^ firing about seven shots altogether from 
the Daw- Jacob before the tiger lay quite motionless and harmless on the sand. 
It is advisable to have all your weapons of the same bore ; mishaps of this 
kind interfere terribly with success^ and a scrimmage seldom lasts many 
minutes. 

On examining this tiger after he was taken to camp^ we cut several of the 
large elongated Daw-Jacob bullets out of his body, and no bullets of any 
other kind had hit. I will now give you some particulars connected with an 
expedition to the Brahmapootra churs between Mymensing and Assam, and 
after that I will bore you no further with tales of tiger-shooting from the 
howdah. 



Letter No. 37. 

An expedition to the Brahmapootra Churs for Tigers. Want of knowledge beforehand. 
Too early for the best sport Mj two companions. Buckland and his style of managing 
Elephants. Lyall, the straight man. Open sport with a Tiger in very light jungle. 
Poor sport and very bad weather. A gun bursts. Hot on Rhinoceros, but no luck. 
Sport improves. — Ilog-hunting destroyed by the armed police. Anecdote as to the 
smartness of these police as soldiers. — Kill three Tigers. — Grand sport at Churs Gothail, 
Tubra, and Hurgela. Five Tigers in one day. — Curious effect of a shot. — Fine scene 
with a jumping Tigress. — Remarks as to Tigers jumping on Elephants. Elephant rolls 
up her trunk when a Tiger charges. 

On the Ist of February, 1866, three of us met at my house in Mymensing 
for a tiger-shooting expedition to the chur country lying along the banks of the 
Brahmapootra river, between Mymensing and Lower Assam. Unfortunately 
my diary gives no proper data to assist me, as on this occasion it merely 
records dates and names of places and distances, and the tigers killed on 
certain dates. There is no mention of the various kinds of deer, or of the 
floriken or partridges we bagged, so I shall say little about them. We were 



EXPEDITION TO THE BRAHMAPOOTRA. CHURS. 149 

a month too early and very little grass had been burnt, and on this account 
we had to give up much country in which I had anticipated the very best 
sport. Worst of all none of us knew the country in the least, and although 
Budderuddeen was with me and made himself extremely useful as a shikarry, 
I had not been able to use him as a scout beforehand for more mmp» than 
one day. Our only guide was the mahout of my elephant ; in addition to 
being rather a fool generally, he insisted on urging us to go to the same 
places and act exactly as a former master of his had done many years before. 
In the mean time his recollections had almost vanished, as had nearly all the 
particular jungles he talked about ; for the most part these spaces had been 
cultivated, and all the country which by his account we were to find swarming 
with deer, and with likelihood of a rhinoceros at least every other day, was 
covered with high and almost impenetrable coarse grass, in which the line of 
elephants was at once hidden and sport could not be expected till the spring 
fires had raged among it for at least a month. Nevertheless we had some 
days of brilliant sport and bagged more than a score of tigers. I had two 
companions, Messrs. Buckland and Lyall ; both of these gentlemen have been 
mentioned in earlier letters as being present at Lord Mayors hog-hunting 
party ; both were, like myself, members of the Bengal Civil Service. Buck- 
land was quite the best manager of a line of elephants in jungle hard to beat 
that I knew ; no general remarks, such as " Push on, my men 1 '' came from 
his mouth. In an extraordinary short time he learnt the name of each 
mahout and his animal, and as sure as one was in fault, whether too forward 
or, what was more likely, a little behind, that man and his elephant would be 
singled out by name and treated to most forcible language in the vernacular. 
If this did not rouse him to exertion nothing would. Buckland was always 
ready to take the centre of the line and go himself into the densest and 
thorniest places, leaving the chances of the best shots to others. Our friend 
Lyall was keen and true — very good after a hog with the spear, and not to 
be discouraged by any difficulties. We had taken leave from Government 
and for the time were not bothered with official duties. 

We opened the campaign on February 8rd rather late in the day. 
Budderuddeen had worked a tiger into some grassy jungles leading into the 
open plain, and too light apparently for large game. I had considerable 
difficulty in restraining my two friends, who wished to fire at floriken and 
such insignificant animals, while I was desirous of making sure of the tiger ; 
in fact they thought the jungle too light and distrusted my man, whereas I 
trusted him implicitly. The jungle was beaten out and all that remained was 
a long patch of low weed, rubbishing stuff called in Bengalee '^ beeskatali,'^ or 
bug-poison. I determined to beat this, for I knew that sometimes cover only 
apparently sufficient for a hare might conceal a tiger. Out of this beeskatali 
she jumped with a roar, and after a few shots we bagged tiger number one. 
On the way back we slaughtered hares and birds. 



150 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

But these jungles were altogether too light. Next we tried large tracts of 
land covered with jhow, and agreed to spend no more time here. Our camp 
was accompanied with boats and we could accommodate ourselves on streams 
or at a distance from them. Late on the 6th we bagged the second tiger ; 
on the 7th, 8th, and 9th we shot over splendid ground for all sorts of game, 
but the grass was unbumt. There were tigers about, but no getting at them. 
We came on a young tiger's body, the greater part of which had been eaten 
by other tigers. On the 10th we saw a tiger, but failed to bring him to bag. 
On the 11th and 12th it rained for thirty-six hours out of the forty-eight. 
Up to this we had no remarkably good sport ; we had bagged only one out of 
two bears, and Lyall had burst a gun. On the 13th we were hot on rhinoceroses, 
but we never positively fired a shot at. one; towards the close of the day we 
had great fiin with a savage tigress and secured her, and next day we got 
another tiger. No tiger for the next two days, by which time we had moved 
camp to Rajaballa Hath. Up to this we certainly were disappointed, because 
better sport might have been got near Mymensing ; but on the 17th we had a 
capital day, first killing three buffaloes and then two fine savage tigers. The 
country required to be much more burnt up. Up to the 25th we were still 
unlucky as regarded tigers. Lyall and I tried a beat for hog-hunting ; we 
only got three boars. The reason of this was that there was a police station 
near, manned by a number of police of quasi-military character, composed of 
men belonging to castes which eat pork ; these policemen spent their time in 
shooting hogs. I found a heap of about a hundred pigs' heads behind the 
thanna. We were now in the non-regulation provinces. I never could 
exactly define the difference between non-regulation provinces and regulation 
provinces. One authority had laid it down that in the latter there was some 
law and in the former no law. The following anecdote may serve to show 
how police matters are carried out in non-regulation districts. Buckland, 
who was a Volunteer oflScer of some standing, was requested to see the police 
drilled, and some dozen of them came to parade with the muskets used for 
pig-slaughter. " Stand at ease ! '* *' attention I '' *' shoulder arms ! " and some 
such motions were gone through. Then came the order '' Right face, march ! '' 
A few men at the one end of the line marched north, and a few at the other 
marched south, and those in the middle stood still. We of the regulation 
provinces laughed consumedly. The men were got together again, assured 
that they were valiant soldiers, and the parade was dismissed. This, however, 
was not tiger-shooting, so we broke up camp entirely and retraced our steps 
to try ehur jungles nearer Mymensing. And now we came in for luck. On 
the 26th we got to some practicable jhow-jungles at Sherazabad and had a 
good day, killing three tigers. Then we got proper news of tigers at Chur 
Oothail, and on the 28th we beat up some jungles at places called Tubra and 
Hurgela. Here the footmarks of tigers were more numerous than in any 
place I had ever been, but the jhow-guugle was just as high as an elephant's 



TIGERS AT TUBRA AND HURGELA CHURS. 161 

head; it was easy to beat and get through, but diflBcult to see in. Evidently 
we were close to tigers — my unerring elephant said so plainly ; still we beat 
a splendid patch and saw nothing. Buckland seeing a number of men 
waiting by the river side left us to inquire what they were at ; while he wag 
gone I and Lyall resolved to beat these patches again, for I was sure there 
was a tiger near. While Buckland was finding out the difference between a 
real general, who the men said they were waiting for, and whose coming to 
these districts might have been connected with some frontier outbreak, which, 
owing to our absence from civilized parts, we had not heard of, and a super- 
visor or superintendent general of some petty police oflSce, Lyall and I came 
suddenly on a lot of tigers. It was difficult to get good shots at them, and 
they roared and dodged about in different directions and the firing 
was hot. Buckland came hurrying back, but I think we had disposed 
of two before his arrival ; some had crossed an opening to another 
patch. We turned out number three before Buckland, who planted a 
ball in him, which had a most curiously ludicrous effect. The tiger could 
not raise his head from the ground, but kept spinning round and round, 
his head in the centre, his hind quarters and tail high in the air. He 
kept up this teetotum kind of game for some time and then we gave him a 
volley and stopped it. There were no more tigers in this patch, so before 
going on we had to pad these three ; this took a long time. Then we made a 
beautiful line to beat the next great jungle of similar jhow-trees. The three 
elephants, each with a tiger on the guddies, looked lovely. I wish an artist 
could have depicted the party about a quarter of an hour afterwards, when 
an active tiger bounded over the top of the jhow with loud roar and arched 
back, tail up, and ears laid back; he jumped fifteen feet in the air. This was 
merely to enable him to see exactly what was going on. In his next bound 
he was right on to the head of my old elephant '* Shamkholly.'^ He did not 
pull the elephant down, and the mahout struck the tiger on the head with all 
his force with the heavy elephant-goad ; this made him let go, and as he 
moved off we fired and he was killed. This was number four ; but there 
was another yet. We beat steadily on,* and after some delay got our fifth 
tiger. I never shot five tigers at any other time. I have heard of it being 
done, and perhaps if you hunt up old prints in Calcutta you may still find 
an absurd picture of the judge of Bajshahye killing five charging tigers at 
once. The judge told me particulars, but I cannot remember them. I have 
killed three tigers in a day more than ouce, and Lyall and I killed three soon 
after this glorious day, as you shall hear. 

The tiger did not jump clean on to the elephant's head ; it is very seldom 
that tigers do so jump, in my opinion. Their object, I believe, in these home- 
charges is to pull the elephant down ; they fix both front claws well into the 
trunk and, biting with all their power, try with their weight to bring elephant 
and howdah headlong to the earth ; in the same way they fix claws and teeth 



162 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

into the guddy and howdah. I have seen scores of such attacks^ but I never 
saw a tiger bound clean on to an elephant ; this could easily be done ; and tlie 
tiger in question jumped, as just related, into the air twice the height of an 
ordinary elephant, and could as easily have leaped into any of our howdaha 
or into any of the mahouts^. I have heard of charges in which the tiger has 
fixed his claws in a mahout's thigh ; I never saw such a wound, and, as tbe 
thigh is always behind the elephant's ear, I do not understand how it could, 
happen. But these views of mine have been more or less controverted; but 
I never actually got chapter and verse for the fact of a tiger having bounded 
high in the air and having alighted clean on to a howdah or on to a man on 
an elephant. Elephants have been pulled down; but luckily such a contretemps 
never occurred to me ; nor in all my lengthened tiger-shooting experience was 
any man of my party hurt by a tiger, A leopard once jumped clean on to 
myself and took me into a bush and shook me ; but this was owing to my 
own folly, and will be noticed in letters about leopards. 

When a female elephant is charged by a tiger she rolls her trunk up to 
keep it out of danger, and lowers her head and fore part of her body, and thus 
offers a most tempting place for a tiger to attack; and most of the elephants I 
have seen wounded by tigers were bitten and torn below and between the eyes 
and on each side of the top of the trunk. I have, of course, also seen a tiger 
fix on to the hinder parts and sides of an elephant ; but this was because the 
elephants turned off when the tiger came roaring at them. The excitement 
and fun in these scrimmages is very grand, and if every tiger would fight, and 
if a few more could be found in tiger-expeditions, I might put tiger-shooting as 
a sport before hog-hunting ; but, as I have said before, hog-hunting is the finest 
sport to be got in Eastern Bengal. 

I must hasten on to a still more exciting tiger-scene than the above. 



Letter No. 38. 

Best day's sport of all. — Hear of Tigers at Eewah Chur, and visit it late in the day. Swim 
Elephants across. Wound a Tigress and take cuhs. Leave howdahs on the island and 
Elephants in the village on the mainland. — Sport on the island next day. Find some 
fighting Tigers, which repeatedly put us to flight. Put my howdah on a stauncher 
Elephant with Sowdaugor Mahout, and at last kill those fighting Tigers and a third. 
Benuirks on the day. 

We had now come to March. February had been cold and at times exceedingly 
wet, and all the arrangements against discomfort which I have referred to in 
earlier letters as to tents and storms had to be carried out. The March winds 
now began to blow and the dried grass of the jungles burnt furiously when 



XEWAH OHUR VISITED. 153 

^ properly fired. Lyall and I rode long distances^ making inquiries, and by 

^ this means beard of kills of whieb we should have known nothing had we 

B remained with the elephants. We had a good day at Neelee ehur and bagged 

^ two good tigers. After this Buekland was obliged to leave us, and Lyall and 

■ I went on by ourselves. We had heard that there were several tigers on 

p Kewah ehur. 

i When we got to this place we found it to be an island in the Brahmapootra 

: river, separated from the mainland by a wide deep stream. We had to get 

[ boats and transfer howdahs and guddies to the boats and then to swim all 

the elephants across, and then the howdahs &c. had all to be fastened on 
again. These operations consumed hours. When we did start for shooting 
we found ourselves on a rather extensive island of which no one knew any* 
thing. We knew nothing of the shape of the jungles; they seemed very fit, 
however, and though there were no houses, there were numbers of cattle, and 
from the dead carcases in every direction it was clear that the tigers were 
having a good time of it. 

During the short time we hunted the first day we put up tigers, and we 
wounded a tigress badly — at one time we thought mortally — but we never 
actually bagged her. We thought she might have dropped over the high bank 
of the river or have fallen dead in some secret place ; but as we heard of her 
again, this was not the case. 

In the jungle from which we had ousted this tigress my elephant had given 
her sign that there were other tigers at hand, so we beat it again, and each 
time that we reached a particular part of the high jhow-jungle, she kicked 
with her fore feet and made her peculiar noise. Having beaten this place 
four times, it occurred to me that there must be cubs, and by looking very 
carefully, and beating almost inch by inch, we discovered them. Lyall was 
half off his elephant in a minute ; but I peremptorily desired him not to get 
down so soon. We knew we had a badly wounded tigress close by ; a poor 
friend, well known to both of us and mentioned in earlier letters as the Col- 
lector of Tippera, had only lately lost his life by going alone to a tiger which 
he thought he had killed the day before. I made a ring of the elephants and 
carefully ascertained that there was no tiger in that ring, and then taking 
every precaution we could, Lyall and an attendant got down and handled the 
cubs ; there were three, I think — pretty little creatures, unable to run about. 
We took two, and as it was now near dark and we were a very considerable 
distance from home, we left the other cub in the hopes that the mother might 
come for it. 

When we got to the deep stream we left all the guddies and howdahs on 
the sandy bank for the night. We took guns and ammunition across in the 
boats and swam the elephants back to mainland. Next I arranged that the 
mahouts and attendants should put up for the night in the nearest village and 
take charge of the guns ; orders were given that the elephants should gather 



164 SPOKT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

all necessary food in the early mornings for there was notliing for them in 
the island. Lyall and I then rode to the tents some miles off^ and by 9.30 
A.M. next morning we rode back and rejoined the elephant party. 

We got across the river as quick as we could, and the howdahs were fixed 
on the elephants with the least possible delay. My favourite elephant " Lucky ^' 
had had rather more than her fair share of howdah-carrying lately, and my 
howdah on this eventful day was placed upon *' Nayuntara/' a nice-paced, 
strong elephant who had hitherto been sufficiently staunch ; but on this day 
she disgraced herself greatly and showed much cowardice. We were told 
that the tigress which we had wounded on the preceding day had been seen 
sneaking slowly back towards the jungle where we got the cubs, and there 
were tigers in some jhow at the south of the island. We went first after the 
tigress ; the cub which we left had disappeared and we found no trace of a 
tiger in that patch. We thought it most likely that the mother, and she 
probably was the tigress we had wounded, had removed her cub in the night ; 
it was, however, quite possible that other tigers had come across the cub and 
devoured it, and also that the tigress we wounded might not have been the 
mother. 

We next went to the south of the island and prepared to beat an exceedingly 
promising strip of jhow-jungle. It was a quarter of a mile long and not 
broader than two hundred yards ; the jhow-trees were about eight feet high, 
growing very thickly together, with pliant stems. It was easy to beat, that is 
elephants passed through it with ease ; but they left no tracks at first, and 
any animal moving in front of the line was almost invisible. There appeared 
no reason why a tiger should not be forced to leave such a jungle and take to 
the open ; but, as was so common in these thick covers, the tigers preferred 
to remain under shelter. 

Before we had gone one hundred yards into the jhow two tigers attacked 
the line with great uproar. A panic at once seized the elephants, and they 
all bolted, and we were driven clean out of the jungle without having fired a 
shot. We re-formed line and went at them again ; we had the greatest 
number of elephants in the centre, then Lyall was on the right, and I was 
on the left, and we ^ each had two elephants outside of us. A second time 
we were attacked and disgracefully routed ; our elephants ran away for a 
great distance in the most cowardly manner. 

We now altered tactics : seeing that the tigers came always at the centre 
of the line, Lyall and I took our howdah-elephants in the centre and 
■ arranged the beating-elephants on each side, and in this formation we 
advanced to the third attack. The tigers behaved exactly as before ; but we 
both managed to fire at them as they came towards us. '^ Nayuntara '^ was 
round in an instant and in full speedy retreat ; but the tiger singled her 
put and gave chase. I managed to steady myself in the howdah with my 
face to the tail, and in this way got an easy shot just as the tiger was rising. 



J 



SPORT AT KEWAH CHUR. 156 

to strike the elephant behind, and I put in a mortal bullet. I Baw the tiger 
roll over and over, and though we were all runniDg off at the tip-top 
speed elephants could get up^ I gave a cheer to Lyall, and shouted out that 
one of the tigers was done for. The whole body of elephants fled far into the 
plain. 

Not only had the elephant '' Nayuntara '^ misbehaved greatly, but it seemed 
to me that her mahout too had lost his courage, and did not really exert 
himself to keep his elephant steady. A cowardly mahout makes a cowardly 
elephant; so I resolved to put the howdah on my well-trained favourite 
" Lucky,'' and I knew no pluckier mahout than Sowdaugor existed. This 
arrangement having been carried out, we again entered the jungle in the 
same order as on the last beat : that is, Lyall and I went side by side in the 
centre of the line. Before we reached the middle of the patch of jungle we 
came upon the body of the dead tiger. This rather discomposed the already 
nervous elephants ; but we went on, and when we came across the other tiger 
my elephant at any rate was steady, and we wounded him, and were not 
routed out of the jungle this time. Then we formed line and beat back ; 
the jungle was now considerably beaten and trodden down and we could 
see better ; so when next the tiger was roused up and began to show fight 
we were able to get a better view of him, and he was soon rolled over, dead. 
This had been a most exciting scrimmage, and great was the hubbub and 
talking that went on before both these tigers were hoisted on to the guddies. 
There were more patches of jungle to be beaten, and in one of these we 
turned up a fine and savage tiger. He came slap at me open-mouthed ; but 
Sowdaugor held " Lucky" firmly, and my very first shot, at about twenty paces 
off, struck the tiger on the nose, and, passing backwards, shattered the lower 
jaw, and rendered him powerless as regarded biting propensities. Thus we 
had little difficulty in adding him to our score of slain. 

This was decidedly the finest day's sport I ever had on the churs, and 
after it, although Lyall and I went on and killed more tigers, I will not inflict 
on you any more tales of tiger-shooting from the howdah. I believe that 
these tigers had long lived in this little island. If it had not been submerged 
in the usual rising of the Brahmapootra river in the preceding July and 
August they may have been on the island for more than a year, or they 
might have just occupied these jungles five months before I found them. 
There was nothing whatever for them to feed on on the island but tame 
cattle. We did not find one deer, hog, or even hare or large bird upon it ; 
yet we had killed three full-grown tigers and wounded a fourth, and found 
three cubs. The island was not a mile and a half long nor very broad ; the 
destruction these animals carried on among the herds of cattle must have 
been most serious. I consider that these tigers had never been interfered 
with, and that they had no fear of man ; and that tigers found in places 
where they have been long allowed to prey on animals without being attacked 



166 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

and disturbed are much more ready to fight than those which have been 
often harrassed bjr shooting-parties^ or driven off by native shikarries and 
frightened and prevented from establishing a home or den. That they 
thought themselves secure is also confirmed by the fact that they chose the 
island aa a breeding-place. 

In memory of this day's fine sport I prepared the head of the last tiger^ and 
afterwards took it to Ward, the taxidermist, in Vigo Street, who stuffed it 
and put it into a glass case, where the open mouth is filled with an enormous 
red tongue, and the whole head made to look bigger than it did when I first 
saw his green glaring eyes and his real tongue. 

A few years afterwards I visited Kewah chur, and learned that immedi- 
ately after our departure the whole of the jhow-jungle had been cut down, 
and no tiger had been seen or heard of on the island again. 



Letter No. 39. 

The Jungles of Eastern Bengal not suited for sport on foot, and Elephants generaUy used. — 
Ameers of Scinde shot Tigers from cages. — Shooting from ''machans" not common except 
by native shikarries : is poor sport at best. — Tigers occasionally killed on foot Objec- 
tions to trying to kill Tigers single-handed on foot. Difficult for one man to kill with 
certainty a Tiger coming straight at him. Even a well-placed ball may not be instanta- 
neously effective. Very different if several sportsmen stand by each other. Death of a 
friend who went up to a wounded Tiger on foot. — Death of a Tiger at ComiUa head 
station. — Tigers in inundations. — Tiger killed by a French gentlenum. 

The climate of the hills on the frontiers of Eastern Bengal is very moist, 
the trees of their forests are green all the year round, and much of 
the thick and thorny undergrowth is too damp to be burnt. Hence you can 
never see for any long distance under the trees. The plains for the most 
part are formed of alluvial soil, producing, when left uncultivated, crops of 
thick grass in which a man can only walk with difficulty, and where he cannot 
see a yard in front. Beating such jungles as these, either on hill or plain, 
with bodies of men, for animals like tigers or buffaloes, which cannot be per- 
ceived till almost within reach, is impracticable, and has not been attempted 
to any extent ; and tiger-shooting, except in the case of watching from trees 
or preparied platforms for the chance of a tiger revisiting the carcase of an 
animal which he has killed, or of his coming to drink at particular spots 
where water is scarce, is generally carried on by Europeans from elephants : 
still tigers are occasionally shot by men and parties on foot where elephants 
are unprocurable, and no other way of getting at the animal can be found. 
When the Ameers of Scinde were kept under surveillance in the neighbour- 



J 



TIGER-SHOOTING ON FOOT. 167 

hood of Calcutta^ in the early days of Lord Dalhonsie's reign^ these noble- 
men^ who were sporting characters in their way^ and came out with the 
Calcutta fox-hounds^ had iron cages made. These cages were carried to 
certain places in the Barasett Soonderbunds^ where tigers were numerous 
and had killed animals put for baits. An Ameer would then enter a 
cage and have himself fatttened in^ and remain in the cage all the moon- 
light night. In this way the Ameers killed several tigers, they told me. I, 
however, never knew that any European gentlemen had resorted to this kind 
of sport. It would not have suited me ; I should have died of Soonderbnnd 
fever. 

Waiting for a shot at a tiger, when he should come to have another meal 
off an animal which he had killed, from branches of trees or '^ machans,'' was a 
kind of sport I very soon abandoned after trial. I was bitten by ants and 
stung by mosquitoes, and when on one occasion the attendant muttered to me 
to look out as the tiger was coming, the beast either heard his voice, or 
perhaps heard my movement on the branch as I tried to get into a position 
to shoot should the tiger show himself at the expected spot. I never saw the 
tiger, and I never got a shot on this or any other similar occasion. Tigers 
are killed in this manner by the native shikarries for the Government 
reward, and for the backsheesh which they receive from zemindars and cattle- 
owners in the neighbourhood, and for the profit they make from selling the 
whiskers, claws, and tiger-fat. If you think you would like this kind of sport, 
for a good douceur a native shikarry doubtless will give you a chance of a shot ; 
you will be much more likely to catch a fever. From what I have heard, 
most tigers shot from trees in the dusk are wounded, and the bodies often 
not recovered for some days. When you have hit a tiger, and he has 
crawled out of sight, you do not know that he is dead ; and if you are to 
wait on your branch till daylight and attendants come to you, you will have 
to pass a most disagreeable time of it. 

I have, however, gone out tiger-shooting on foot at times, and must not 
omit to notice the subject. I consider it little short of madness for a sports- 
man to offer, when alone by himself, to receive the attack of a tiger on foot. 
Let a man be ever such a good shot and able to put his bullet wHere he 
pleases — let his nerve be such that he can stand like a machine and not feel 
pulsation increase when he sees a large tiger come bounding towards him 
and with no possible chance of avoiding his heavy blows but by the delivery 
of a shot which shall not only be fatal, but which must instantly deprive the 
animal of power of motion and ability for mischief — ^I call it madness to 
expose himself to such a risk. The best shots occasionally shoot more or 
less wide of their exact marks : many a well-delivered bullet has glanced 
or gone round instead of straight through the body; a ball striking the hard 
bone of the skull may deviate and miss the brain, and many a mortal wound 
may not instantaneously deprive an animal of power. A tiger may go on 



158 STORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

for fifty or even a hundred yards with a ball in his hearty and strike many a 
murderons blow with his mighty paws before he actually expires. A ball 
behind the ear^ passing through the back of the head, or a bullet in the 
vertebrse of the neck^ may render a tiger instantly powerless ; but bullets 
cannot be placed behind the ear when a tiger is coming straight at you. 
Therefore I say if you go shooting tigers on foot secure some place where you 
can avoid his rush, or obtain the companionship of some two or three other 
armed sportsmen at your side ; also, if the tiger is advancing to your place 
of ambush, say behind a tree or thick bush, let him pass before you deliver 
your shot, or you may, by firing at him when he does not ofler a sufficiently 
fatal opportunity for a deadly wound, bring his attack at once on to you. 
Wounded tigers will generally attack anything immediately in their line of 
advance, especially if they think they have received the injury from anything 
in front, whereas they will seldom turn back after they have passed the place 
from which they have been shot. Besides^ a tiger passing offers you the choice 
of the most fatal spots to fire at — the ear, the side of the head, the neck, and 
the heart. You can make sure of no really fatal spot when a tiger is coming 
at you if you are on foot : a shot in the nose is constantly far from fatal, and 
may pass downward between the jaws and into the side of the neck ; a ball 
between the eyes may run along the bone of the skull outside. I have known 
a bullet down the throat fail to stop a tiger. It is impossible to say that a 
single well-planted ball delivered at a tiger coming straight at you at thirty 
yards distance or less must necessarily prevent him reaching you and giving 
you your death-blow ; and the fact that you and others may have delivered 
once, or more than once^ an instantaneously fatal shot at a tiger charging 
straight down on you is no proof that you will be always able to repeat the 
feat. It is an entirely different matter if three or four men with double- 
barrels in their hands pour a volley into an attacking tiger, the shower of 
balls will most probably knock him completely over, and a second volley can 
be then discharged into his prostrate body ; and a tiger generally hesitates to 
attack a number of resolutely opposing men, whereas he will go willingly 
at one single individual. If a tiger does get hold of you, even though he be 
wounded and all but dead, the chances of your surviving the injuries are 
terribly against you. I have read of several European gentlemen who have 
been siezed by wounded tigers and who died in consequence. I have known 
men who have lost their limbs ; I myself all but lost my arm from the attack 
of a leopard ; and my poor friend, the collector mentioned in the hog-hunting 
letters as accompanying me to the island of Siddhee, was afterwards killed by 
a tig^r when he was a judge. I have referred to this accident more than once, 
so I suppose I may give brief particulars. 

This gentleman, who had always been an ardent and persevering sportsman 
and as keen with spear or smooth-bore or in the howdah as myself, would never 
keep elephants of his own ; he trusted to scratch elephants obtained from 



A TIGER KILLED AT COMILLA. 159 

zemindars and natives^ and with such animals he was shooting in the country 
between Dinagepore and Maldah^ accompanied by the joint magistrate of his 
district. They wounded a tiger late in the day^ and the tiger^ though very 
severely wounded^ gained the shelter of some high thick grass into which the 
cowardly inferior elephants could not be induced to enter. All efforts to get at 
the beast having failed he was left ; and next day my friend went again to the 
grass^ and again these elephants could not be driven or taken into it. The 
judge then thought the tiger must be dead^ and he fired into the place where 
he thought he was and nothing stirred ; so the two gentlemen got off their 
elephants and^ instead of going shoulder to shoulder most carefully with 
cocked guns^ they separated^ and the judge with his unloaded gun went into 
the grass and instantly came upon the tiger^ wounded but not dead : the 
tiger seized him and was inflicting terrible injuries when the joint magistrate 
came to the rescue and shot the tiger stone dead with a single ball. The judge 
shortly after died of the wounds. I need not enlarge on the accident^ as you 
read the tale you may judge for yourself. 

In early days^ when I had no elephants of my own^ about 9 a.m. news was 
brought that there was a tiger in the station of Comilla^ close to our public 
offices; I was the only sporting officer at headquarters at the time. I 
hurried to the bank of the Goomtee, the river which runs through Tippera 
aud by the Comilla bazaar ; by the time I got to the station embankment I 
found every half-caste clerk and petty officer who could hold a gun at the 
spot^ with every species of weapon from an old horse-pistol to a four-ounce rifle, 
which last weapon was held by a Frenchman. We found the marks of a small 
tiger in the mud on the bank, and some said it was only a leopard. We 
followed the marks up to some thick thorn bushes : after some time I put my 
head into one of these to look if any animal could be seen ; instantly there 
were several grunts, which I thought came from a hog. I was asking the 
people not to shoot a hog if it should bolt, when out went a tiger ; it bounded 
up to the embankment, and on leaping down the other side struck an old 
woman on the creel or basket of fish which she had on her back, and knocked 
the old lady into the water, where she screamed loudly, but no damage had been 
done. The tiger was now in some low scrubby thorny bushes about two feet 
high, and close to the houses and offices : presently, for some reason or other, 
he walked out ; I did not see him, but some twenty persons did ; a tremendous 
volley was fired, and the firing went on for a minute or two, and this fair* 
sized hill tiger was disposed of. I was the wrong side for the fun and saw 
none of it. 

Tigers in the high inundations get washed out of their usually dry lurking- 
places and go swimming for long distances, and occasionally take refuge in 
most unlikely places, even in towns and factories. I have known them go 
into the town of Chittagong and into the suburbs of Dacca. I remember, 
when I was at Rajshahye, one swam to a low patch of grass near a factory 



leO SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

superintended by a gallant old Frenchman named Deveria ; he was told of the 
tiger and went and took a look at it crouching in the grass. He returned to 
his factory, cleaned his one single-barrelled rifle, fitted a bullet to it after much 
trimming with a penknife, and sallied forth against the tiger, and was going 
to shoot it from some distance ; but he thought, as he had only once chance, 
he had better go closer, so he walked up to about fifteen yards : the tiger 
never moved ; he shot him through the head and the tiger lay dying. This 
gentleman had served under Napoleon the Great and was a remarkably 
daring and cool man; he was equally cool, or foolhardy, with a dangerous 
snake, as I will tell you when I come to letters on snakes. 



Letter No. 40. 

Sport at Cuttack. — Sportsmen scarce in Orissa ; but a good sporting country, which requires 
much looking up, and would require much pains and trouhle. — A hank at Cuttack. 
Want of good preparations. Hrst day on platforms. Second day rouse a tigress nn* 
expectedlj: kill her on foot. Behaviour of Europeans and natives. — Tigers on trees 
in inundations. 

I ONCE had an exciting brush with a tiger in Cuttack. Cuttack is not in 
Eastern Bengal, but it is under the rule of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal^ 
and as a Bengal civilian you might be appointed to a station in that province. 
I was only there for three months ; I found no experienced sportsmen at 
Cuttack, no man who had ever seen a tiger, and no one who could give me 
proper sporting information. 

There were plenty of elephants procurable, but not one howdah in the city. 
But Orissa must be a grand province for shikar. A very large portion of the 
country is uncultivated and covered with forest ; the dry rocky hills are full 
of bears ; gour or bison in moderate numbers are to be found. Spotted deer 
roam about in large herds ; the sambhur bucks carry antlers to which no 
horns of Eastern Bengal can approach. Tigers are not scarce. The Chilka 
Lake is one of the best places for ducks and waterfowl known in India ; in the 
plains surrounding it plenty of antelopes are to be got, and in the low-lying 
jungles nearer the western shores of the Bay of Bengal herds of wild bufialoes 
and sounders of hogs used to afibrd the best of exciting sport. The Indian 
sporting magazines for 1840 to 1850 have numerous articles describing sport 
in Orissa. The judge of Rajshahye, my old before-mentioned friend, used to 
tell me thrilling stories of his adventures on foot with a celebrated Cuttack 
sportsman (Dr. Chapman, I think), and the hairbreadth escapes they had 
experienced when shooting wild animals among the ant-hills.. Hog-hunting 



ORISSA A GOOD SPORTING COUNTRY. 161 

used to flourish in Orissa. Tumlook and its salt lands are not far off; and, 
with a long ride and a night in a palkee^ one might join members of a hog- 
hunting club belonging to Madras who sometimes come to meets not so very 
far from Cuttack. Had it been my luck to have been employed for twenty 
years in the Cuttack districts^ I think I should have found plenty of 
sporty and have had perhaps as much fun and excitement as in Eastern 
Bengal. 

But^ from my experience as an Indian sportsman^ I should say that really 
good sport in Orissa could only be obtained by a person who either knew the 
country and the places and times at which to work, or was able to take 
advantage of the knowledge of others. It is no use to wander about in 
trackless forests like the Khoond mehals or tributary states ; game does not 
congregate in the interior of such extensive tree-jungles. The deer and the 
hogs seek out the places near cultivation where they can obtain food ; the 
tiger follows the deer or herds of cattle ; gour require good feeding-ground 
and water ; and bears like shelter from the summer sun. Of sport in dry and 
rocky India I know little ; but I saw enough of Cuttack to know that if I 
had been forced to work it for sporty I should have required to keep in my 
employ not one^ but at least four shikarries^ and that without long study of 
the country and its peculiarities — the cultivated and non-cultivated areas^ the 
rivers, marshes, and hills — I should probably ha,ve experienced more failure 
than success ; I should have had to train up several Budderuddeens, to make 
intimate friends with at least a score of half -independent petty rajahs, and to 
have mastered a colloquial language of which I had never even been taught 
the rudiments. 

As it was, during my short experience of the district I had excellent sport, 
and shot tiger, and leopards, and game that I never met before — four-horned 
antelope, the memimna or mouse-deer, and spurfowl. Before I left I 
managed to have a shooting-party got up in the only style the residents 
seemed to be master of. This was half a picnic party and half a " hank.'^ 
To me it was most interesting. I had never seen a hank, nor shot in dry 
forests with open glades where you could see under the trees for hundreds of 
yards. I hoped to have seen a gour (called here bison), and expected a grand 
day at bears ; as it was, we saw no bears and no bison, but we did bag a 
tiger, which none of the party anticipated. 

The hank came off on the 12th and 13th of March in the forests or tree- 
jungles of Gobindpore in Ducknal. Four English gentlemen accompanied 
me ; I was a sort of guest, though the party had been got up at my instance. 
The commissariat arrangements were excellent, and we were all most com- 
fortable. The Rajah had arranged for the beating, and supplied a small army 
of some two hundred and fifty to three hundred Ooriahs as beaters. He 
accompanied us in a sort of open sedan affair, carried by palkee-bearers. I 
should say the Rajah had no more idea how to conduct a really proper drive 

M 



162 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

in such forests as these than a radical spouter at Trafalgar Square ; but be 
did his best. 

He had arranged for several beats, and at fixed distances leafy platforms 
had been made in trees ; to these we mounted by bamboo ladd^rs^ and here 
we were requested to stay till the hank was over. No notice was taken of 
the wind, or of the direction in which the various kinds of jungle were laid out ; 
no one knew any thing of the runs or habits of any animals in these jungles^ 
nor where they would be likely to make for. All was left to luck. 

After about an hour and a half, shots here and there were heard ; occa- 
sionally something was seen moving : possibly that something might come 
your way. Generally, so far as I could make out, most animals broke back. 
Herds of spotted deer were reported to have avoided our platforms; no 
animals of any kind had been actually marked into any particular haunts; 
but, of course, there were the jungles, and game ought to be in them, and 
sensible animals would naturally come walking up to the platforms, but they 
did not, or very few did. I got a sambhur the first day, and considered it 
great luck; another sambhur and some four-homed antelopes were also 
bagged. We had two beats, partaking of a nice tiffin between them, and it 
was a most enjoyable outing, to say the least of it. Then came the walk to 
the tents, and dinner and whist, and a very pleasant evening. 

Next day the same sort of plan was followed, but I preferred to remain on 
the ground. Armstrong shot a leopard ; there were a number of distant 
shots ; I killed a four-homed antelope, and saw some spotted deer break back. 
Just as the hank was over there was a tremendous excitement, and an awfiil 
shouting and hubbub, and it appeared that the beaters had disturbed a tiger 
which had gone forward into some bush-jungle. The beaters all went running 
to their Rajah, and the English gentlemen came together to find out what 
the rumpus was about. Armstrong said at once, ^' Let us put ourselves under 
Simson^s orders, and do what we can.'' I had only one order to give, and 
that was that we should all advance together, and keep together, and separate 
on no account. I said, '^ If we keep together we shall do well ; the tiger 
might come out at us from any bunh, but we ought to be able to manage 
him.'' So we went to the place — ^three gentlemen (Armstrong, Levinge, and 
Webster), a Seikh orderly of Armstrong's (who also carried a double-barrelled 
gun) , and myself. At a respectful distance behind came the Rajah in his tonjon 
and surrounded by his army. Hardly had we got near the bushes when out 
rushed the tiger, and came within thirty or forty yards of us. When he saw 
a lot of us together he hesitated and half turned ; at that instant four barrels 
were fired, four bullets struck him, each in most vital spots. The tiger fell 
so dead and motionless that he lay with his left paw in the air ; so completely 
was he paralyzed and finished that the paw remained in that position till we 
put it down. We five had stood still, but it was very different with those 
behind ; at the first sight of the tiger the Rajah's gallant army bolted to a 



TIGERS ON TREES. 163 

man ; the Rajah was knocked over with his tonjon on the top of him^ and was 
just extricating himself from his difficulties when we looked round at the 
ludicrous sight. 

I said four barrels were discharged : we stood with the other barrels ready 
for another volley^ but it was not needed. There should have been five 
shots discharged ; what was the fifth gun about ? He^ with extra precaution^ 
had, when starting, put the stops into the dogheads of his rifle, and when 
the trigger was pulled the weapon would not go oflF. Where would our friend 
have been had he been alone and single-handed when the tiger charged ? I 
always objected to these stops, and my rifles were made without them. 

When we went to the dead tiger, each man could, in a moment, point out 
his particular wound — Armstrong's was near the heart, two were not far from 
the same place, mine (where I always try to put my ball) behind the ear. 
The whole thing was most successful, and a fair proof, if any proof be 
required, of the advantages of two or three persons keeping close together 
when tiger-shooting on foot, and also of the danger which might easily be 
incurred if any thing went wrong with a single individual unsupported by 
others. 

Tigers, as a rule, do not climb up trees, as leopards often do; there is no 
reason why they should not, and tigers have been several times shot on trees 
in the district of Purneah. I have seen these trees ; they are situated in the 
moist undulating plains which are always inundated when the Oanges rises to 
its greatest height. These wide and desolate pergunnahs contain a certain 
amount of game which, when the grass is high and unbumt, may be said to 
be in safety, but when the inundation is really high it is only the few highest 
spots which are uncovered with water. To these every species of living thing 
resorts that has not already provided against death by drowning. In Southern 
Sylhet the appearance of these watery plains when the water is unusually 
deep must be about the nearest resemblance to the scriptural deluge con- 
ceivable. I have sailed across these places when the human inhabitants only 
existed on artificial mounds crowded with huts, filled to overflowing with 
human beings huddled together for the short time, waiting for a fall of twelve 
or eighteen inches in the flood. To each hut you would see a canoe or two 
fastened. In some places on the top of similar mounds a few trees would be 
seen, their bases standing in the water and their branches waving over it ; 
these branches were covered with an extraordinary collection of living crea- 
tures — snakes and lizards on every branch, rats and animals of the cat 
tribe, squirrels and wading or short-winged birds, curious unknown insects, 
turtles and crab-like creatures unknown to me. As the boat came near, the 
snakes and the rats would leave the trees and come swimming towards it. 
We used generally to be going too fast, and the animals were left in our 
wake, but we had to kill many snakes and rats if they were likely to come up 
to the boats. At such times tigers used to live for the ten days or fortnight 

h2 



164 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

on trees; and at Purncah, when their doings were reported, they used to be 
y shot on the branches. These beasts fed apparently on turtles and young 
crocodiles, on fish and on animals which came to the mounds for refuge, 
and on carcases of drowned creatures which came floating by. Tigers can 
swim well^ and I dare say they used to swim from these trees and return to 
them. I never saw any thing of this myself, but I know the country and 
more than one gentleman who shot tigers on these trees. 



Lbttbe No. 41.— buffaloes. 

The Bengal Baffklo. Savage and hard to kill ; vital spots where he may be wounded. — 
Buffiilo-shooting from horseback. —Difficult to find good riding-ground. — Riding Buf- 
faloes near Sreemoodee. — The planter. — Shooting from the herd. Solitary male Buffalo : 
killing him no easy work. — The Buffalo near Bullumara. Man killed. Battle with the 
Uma. — ^A savage BuffiJo knocks over horse and rider and kills the horse. 

There must be few sportsmen in Eastern Bengal who have shot tigers and 
ridden hogs who have not come across wild buffaloes. The male or bull is 
often called " uma *' or '' arnee.'' Of all the wild animals I have killed I know 
of none that at times can be more desperately savage, more difficult to kill on 
foot or on horseback, or which requires such heavy metal to bring it down. 
All other animals may be instantaneously killed by a ball entering about the 
base of the ear and passing either into the vertebrae or through the back of 
the skull and brain. It is, however, almost impossible to hit a buffalo in this 
vital spot. When the animal goes plunging and blundering along^ at a pace 
which, though not decidedly fast, is far from slow, and which no other animals 
can come up to when the ground is deep marsh or mud, or when way has to 
be made through high thick grass or brushwood or any jungle whatever, he 
always puts his nose in the air, and his huge horns then lie backwards and pro- 
tect the whole of his neck and the particular spot at which, in all other kinds 
of large game, I love most to aim. Hence he must be wounded, most com- 
monly, about the shoulder and heart. His hide is exceedingly tough. Any 
ball about an ounce weight, made only of lead and discharged from a weak 
gun, will, if fired from a long distance, only just pierce the skin. The hide 
of a rhinoceros is hardly tougher when the animal is alive. When a buffalo 
charges (audno animal that I know charges so furiously and determinately) it 
is exceedingly difficult to knock him over with a single ball. I used invariably 
to shoot buffaloes with the heaviest bullets I had, and, except at very close 
quarters or when on horseback, I considered it butchery to fire out of ordinary 
smooth-bores. 

There is^ however, one remarkably tender place where I have several times 



BUFFALO-SHOOTING. 166 

planted fatal balls^ and that is under the tail. The skin is soft here^ and a 
well-fitting ball discharged from a gun loaded with plenty of good powder 
will often pass through the intestines all the way from the tail to the lungs or 
the heart ; in fact, I look on this shot as one that will often prove fatal, though, 
of course, it is not to be relied on. Once bring the uma to the ground and 
let me get behind him, I can put him out of his pain in an instant by planting 
a ball where Byron says the Matador plunges his dagger — 

*' Where his vast neck first mingles with the spine, 
Sheathed in his form the deadly weapon lies.*' 

This spot cannot be reached while the animal is on his legs ; but if you know 
the exact place and fire into it from an elephant or on foot, the huge beast 
stretches his four legs out stiffly, and expires with a quiver. 

Buffalo-shooting from the howdah is comparatively tame amusement, but 
riding a buffalo with a gun, when the ground will admit of it, is grand fun ; 
and shooting fierce buffaloes on foot is a sport that will put all a sportsman's 
nerve and skill to the test. 

The first time I saw wild buffaloes I was out hog-hunting with the Tent 
Club in the Barasett subdivision. We heard of them, and went after them. 
What we were to do heaven only knows. There were some guns, I believe, 
on the elephants. Most of us had only spears, which, as far as buffaloes were 
concerned, might as well have been toothpicks. However, all we saw was a 
number of huge black backs plunging through tall grass-jungle, much like 
great porpoises at sea ; they crossed a tidal nullah and went to the Soonder- 
bund jungles. 

The next time I went to enjoy this sport was in company with Dr. Young 
of Berhampore. It was at a hog-hunting meet where buffaloes were occa- 
sionally to be found in riding-ground. The doctor was a professor of buffalo- 
shooting from horseback, and I learnt the theory from him ; but we were able 
to find no buffaloes in practicable ground. Dr. Young had both gun and pis- 
tols, and considered the last effective. So I bought a pair of double-barrelled 
pistols carrying balls No. 16. In after-practice I found these uselessc 
Enough powder was put in the weapons to cause a nasty jar to the wrist, but 
the bullets sometimes just penetrated the hide, and sometimes they stuck in 
it. So great was the difficulty of getting buffaloes away from dense jungles 
and in open hard plains, that for a time I gave up thinking of the sport. 

There was, however, a planter at Sreemoodee in Tippera who used to ride and 
kill numbers. This was the gentleman who used to hunt hogs at Doudcandee 
and Noakholly with me, and one of those who in after years shot with me at 
Tikree. By a planter you must not understand me to restrict the meaning to 
an indigo-planter — ^the planters I so often refer to were, I think, all at times 
engaged in indigo concerns ; but I extend the term so as to apply to all Euro- 
pean gentlemen employed in silk manufacture, tea-gardens, or the management 



166 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

of landed property in the interior of Eastern Bengal. This planter, Mr. D., 
lived at the time I am now writing of at a factory on the borders of the Dacca 
and Tippera districts. It was an extraordinary sight to see him when first he 
started forth to hunt buffaloes^ of which news had been brought that they were 
in good riding-country. He took three double-barrelled loaded guns (breech- 
loaders were then unknown in India), one gun under each leg. Two attendants 
followed behind. When he came in sight of the herd he schemed to get as 
near as possible, and then rode at it. As he fired the first two guns he dropped 
them, and the attendants picked them up. He carried on the real fight with 
the remaining weapon. 

BufiPaloes are not very shy. Our method was to approach as near as we 
could, keeping, if possible, between the herd and any non- riding country they 
might be likely to make for. We first selected the chosen animal, and gave 
him as heavy a fire as we could ; we then gave chase. If the animal attacked hap- 
pened to be a female, she would probably stick to the herd as long as she could 
and would not figbt till separated and hard pressed. A bull would often do the 
same, but would come more readily to the charge. The man whose turn it 
was to fire would endeavour to get as close as possible before firing into the 
animal from his right side, holding the gun with the right hand, and without 
putting it to the shoulder. Very often the discharge might be delivered at 
about five yards distance if the riding-ground was good ; on such ground a 
good horse can gallop round a bufialo. If the buffalo came at you, there was 
nothing for it but to flee away at best speed ; generally the buffalo would then 
turn and follow the herd. Presently the wounds would tell, and the injured 
animal would fail to keep pace with the herd, and then, after a few shots, 
would succumb, stagger, and fall. 

This was the ordinary occurrence when riding at buffaloes in the herd, but 
the killing of a solitary male or uma was quite a different matter. Such an 
animal would probably be desperately savage, and would not only charge the 
horseman, but would follow and stick to him for any distance, as long as there 
seemed any chance of getting near him. If the sportsman got away, reloaded, 
and again advanced to the attack, the uma probably would go at him the 
moment he came near. This made the killing of the buffalo a very prolonged 
and difficult business. Loading a gun with ball on horseback is not so very 
easy, and not a Uttle judgment and horsemanship are required for the manage- 
ment of a horse in a buffalo-ride. The toughness of the animal^s hide and the 
length of his horns increase the difficulties. One friend of mine used to 
fire at the hock ; he considered that if he could fracture the hock half the 
battle was finished. I never had but one companion at a time in my buffalo- 
ridings ; perhaps if I could have got half a dozen other men to ride and shoot, 
we might have made shorter work of it. 

One day I was hog-huuting at Bullumara on the NoakhoUy churs with an 
officer in the Government Salt Department. He was a real good shikarry, a 



Battle with the urna. le? 

first-rate pig-sticker, and a good shot. In the morning, before we started, a 
number of natives had asked ns to go and kill a tremendous male buffalo which 
they stated was doing great mischief and interfering with their pursuits ; but 
the Salt Superintendent and I had both been so often misled in this manner, 
having generally found that the buffaloes were in ground where riding was 
impracticable, that we preferred to go hog-hunting. On our return from our 
favourite sport, which had yielded us four good hogs, as we neared the salt 
bungalow we saw a crowd of people. The body of a man who had been 
killed by this buffalo had been placed across the threshold, and the relatives 
and villagers had brought the corpse to see if that would induce us to attempt 
to kill the buffalo. We could not refuse, so we started about noon. 

As we neared the place where the urna was reported to be, and which we 
were much pleased to find was in open and cultivated country, the homesteads 
and villages seemed deserted and barricaded, doors and windows fastened, and 
no inhabitants to be seen save a few on the cottage-roofs on the look out. At 
last our guides pointed to about fifty buffaloes feeding on the plain, among 
which was one conspicuous for his great size and his muddy appearance. This 
was the urna. Our guides retired. We, mounted both on Arabs, and armed 
with a double-barrelled smooth-bore each, went slowly towards the herd of 
tame buffaloes ; as these moved quietly off, the urna stood looking savage and 
pawing the ground. When about sixty yards off I told the Superintendent 
that I should fire. So I opened action : the ball struck on the fore leg high 
up, and instantaneously the huge brute came at me. I fired the other barrel 
and fied, dodging round the houses and homesteads. The Superintendent then 
managed to attract his attention and I found time to load. As soon as I was 
loaded I came to the front, and found the Superintendent going best pace, 
with the urna furiously following; so I went up and fired. The buffalo 
instantly left the Superintendent and came at me. I ran round and away, 
getting the second barrel off as best I could; but the urna kept steadily at 
me. Then the Superintendent came and fired, and the buffalo left me and 
charged him. I loaded, and was ready again by the time the Superintendent 
had fired both barrels and was fleeing for shelter ; and this sort of thing went 
on till we were getting tired, and the wounds began to tell on the hunted 
beast. At last a pariah dog joined in the fray, and the buffalo stopped and 
put down his head at the dog, and I managed to get a fair steady shot, and 
planted a ball between the eyes which luckily penetrated the skull and brought 
the animal down. We both then gave him some shots from short distances, 
and he rose no more, but gradually expired. 

No sooner did the scouts on the cottage-roofs perceive that the buffalo had 
fallen to rise no more, than, as if by some preconcerted signal, the villagers 
assembled in hundreds. Each man had a hatchet, or a dao, or a knife, and in a 
wonderfully short space of time they cut that huge animal into pieces, each 
taking a piece home. There was no attempt at skinning, each took what he 



168 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

could seize ; and so greedy were they that it was with difficulty I could secure 
the head as a trophy. This urna had for several days been devastating the 
neighbourhood ; he was so fierce that the herdsmen could not get at the tame 
cow buffaloes to milk them. 

The reference to the head reminds me that^ in consequence of the size, weighty 
and clumsiness of buffaloes' skulls, I never took any of the many fine sets 
of horns I possessed away from the districts in which they were killed. The 
horns of the buffaloes I killed near Assam and in Mymensing were thinner 
than those of Backergunge. The buffaloes of Maldah and Purneah had more 
massive and shorter horns than those of Assam. The tongue and marrow of 
a buffalo were the only parts we ever ate. 

A young planter, connected with the same concern as D. was, had his horse 
killed, and might easily have lost his own life, in his attempt to ride a solitary 
urna without assistance. He wounded the animal, which chased him and got 
him into some high grass ; there the horse was in difficulties, and the buffalo, 
as it were, at home. My friend found he could not get away ; the buffalo 
caught him up, and sent the horse and rider flying into the grass : the man 
lay still as a mouse, the horse got up; the buffalo pursued the horse, 
knocked him down, gored him, trampled on him, and eventually tore his 
inside out, and went off with the horse's entrails wrapped round his horns. My 
friend lay still till the urna disappeared ; he then crept out of the grass-jungle, 
feeling glad to be safe. Poor fellow ! he did not live long, for shortly after- 
wards he went on shore on Saugor Island to look for sport, and was shot by 
a gun-trap set for tigers, as I related in an earlier letter. 



Letter No. 42. 

Ride after a Buffalo at Sabhar. — Unlucky ride after a Buffalo in Purneah ; narrow escape. 
The Buffalo gets off. — Shooting from howdahs. — ^Tame and wild Buffaloes. — Buffalo- 
shooting on foot : in some ways very dangerous. 

The last buffalo I killed off horseback was one of a herd of about six 
animals, one bull and five cows, which we had often seen when hog-hunting 
not far from Thanna Sabhar, on the Bunsee river, in the Dacca district. 
When hogs were plentiful we declined to pursue buffaloes, though often 
asked to do so ; but one day no hog turned up round that favourite bhed, 
where I used to obtain such a variety of game. The buffaloes, however, 
were that day in the bheel, and took away to the westward instead of going 
the usual direction towards the Bhowal forest. I thought I would ride the 
bull, so I changed the spear for the double-barrel and galloped after the herd 






BUFFALOES AT DACCA AND PURNEAH. 169 

accompanied by a young planter who carried neither spear nor gun. After 
a good run on excellent hard ground I separated the bull from the others^ 
and gave him two well-planted bullets^ when^ to my disgust^ I found that 
I had forgot my powder-flask. I requested the young planter to ride behind 
the buffaloes aud^ if possible^ keep them in eighty and I went back towards 
the elephants. Luckily the want had been discovered^ and Budderuddeen 
was coming on the fastest elephant with the flask. I loaded^ and in about 
two miles or so came up with the planter^ and he showed me the herd rolling 
along at a good distance. I went on with the chase^ and just as I was getting 
on terms with them again I saw them all plunge into an extensive piece of 
water^ the bed of an old stream of the Ganges ; and as this was more than a 
hundred yards wide^ I thought I had lost my game. As I reached the water 
I came on a wide embankment^ the existence of which was not known to me ; 
it was not in my map, but had been made to keep the water back and supply 
the neighbourhood in the dry season with water and fish. Doubtless it was 
this water which induced the buffaloes to come so far away from the Bhowal 
jungles. I shouted, and the herd swam across and went away on the western 
side. I crossed by the embankment and laid into them again ; but it was at 
once apparent that the bull was done, the wounds I had given him began to 
tell, he could not keep up with the others, and so turned to fight. The 
ground now was dry rice-stubble field, and I could run round the poor beast 
on my horse. In a few shots I brought him down and killed him. . 

In all kinds of rough ground or fresh jungle, or where the ground is soft 
and galloping for a horse in any way di£Scult, a rider cannot approach a 
fighting buffalo ; on hard clean riding-ground he may ride round the animal 
and, so to speak, play with him ; but it is to be recollected that till disabled 
a buffalo will persevere and keep up his attack, and there may possibly be 
an end to the good riding-groundi and then the rider may get into difiiculty, 

I heard of some buffaloes in some wide flat plains in Pumeah, not very 
far from the Coosy river ; and as it was likely that hogs might also be found 
and floriken were sure to be seen, I went to see what I could do, and the 
planter, who had a howdah, managed the elephants. We found the herd in 
beautiful plains for riding, and if I had been accompanied by a few horsemen 
we might have slaughtered several. I gave up the spear and took a single- 
barrelled gun and set off after the herd, and endeavoured first to separate the 
bull from the herd. This took some time and hard work. I was riding an 
Arab which pulled hard on ordinary occasions, but just as I warmed to the 
contest the curb broke. I had very great difficulty in holding and guiding 
him, and so missed very many shots. The uma was a game fighter, and 
whenever I wounded him chased me for hundreds and hundreds of yards. 
I fired, I suppose, twenty shots at distances from thirty to ten yards. We 
passed over a great tract of country. Once he got into a tank with high 
banks j as I got to the top of the bank he charged right up at me, and I 



L 



170 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

expected that I should have killed him, as I fired from about ten yards 
distance ; but he did not even f aU. At last I got him on some beautiful 
grass ground, and he was pounding on with his head low, and bleeding from 
head and mouth, with tongue out, and looking very exhausted. I galloped 
alongside and fired from about five yards, and he staggr 1, but levelled his 
horns and charged most desperately. I fled away, he ,. lowed, and when I 
had galloped about two hundred yards I got to the gt[jl of the good ground. 
I was very tired ; the horse was pulling and would not turn, or I should have 
galloped back ; but I was also thoroughly exhausted, and went straight on. I 
now found myself in grass about three feet high, amq^'^t which high white-ant 
hills were thickly scattered ; and while I was doin uite my very best, with 
spurs in and both hands on the reins, to guide ^j horse through the ant- 
hills, the uma, with his heavy snort and breathiog, was within ten yards of 
the horse's tail. I thought of poor W., and considered my hour had 
arrived, as I made no way from the infuriated beast, when he struck one 
horn against an ant-hill and tumedr completely over with a resounding fall. 
Before he was quite on his legs again I got past this patch of grass and 
white-ant hills and on to fair ground, and I pulled up and turned round. I 
never felt so completely exhausted and done up in my life ; at the moment 
I was quite unable to load. The buffalo, after looking towards me for some 
minutes, lay down, and I thought he was going to die. After about ten 
minutes, during which I had done nothing, he got up and staggered away. 
I was just hesitating as to whether I would renew the attack, when the buffalo 
half crawled half stumbled over an embankment and found himself on the 
muddy shore of a branch of the Coosy. He struggled into the water and 
refreshed himself, and slowly ascended the opposite bank and gained the grass- 
jungle. I could not have followed even if I would, so I began to think about 
getting back. The planter had followed as well as he could with the 
elephants, and I was glad to see him in the distance. As the crow flies I 
had traversed about nine miles, and as we did not run in any direct line I 
must have ridden many more miles. I was truly thankful to be hoisted on 
to an elephant-guddy and to be refreshed with some brandy- and-soda. I 
was so tired, exhaused, worn out, and stiffs that I was not fit for anything 
for some days. I attribute4 this chiefly to the pulling of the horse and the 
difficulty of loading on such a hai*d-mouthed animal. I also consider that 
this was the nearest touch to losing my life which ever occurred to me among 
my many lucky escapes in the chase of wild animals, for there was no one 
who could have rendered any assistance ; and when the head of the buffalo 
was close to my horse's tail among the white-ant hills in the grass, the 
chances must have appeared very much against me. The buffalo was an old 
and very tough-hided one, my bullets were light for such an old bull ; I fired 
away nearly all I had, and the animal was bleeding from head and body, and 
must, I should think, have died before long. 



BUFFALO-SHOOTING. 171 

Ordinarily buffaloes are shot from the howdah. They are careless^ and no 
skill is required to get near them at first ; when alarmed they will go straight 
to their points^ deviating from nothing in their way^ let the ground be hard or 
soft, marsh or deep water, heavy grass or thick tree-jungle — all come alike to 
the buffalo ; he m! go for many miles without stopping, except perhaps to 
sink himself in cool '*'ater, just leaving the tip of his nose out. The only 
difSculty is for the mai in the howdah to cut off the herd or get before it, 
so as to be able to plant some heavy balls into the animals at the shortest 
possible distance. 

There is no difference " ^tween the wild and the tame buffalo in appearance. 
Wild bulls often come the herds of tame cows and stay with them for 
days; the herdsmen like is, and think it improves the breed. Tame animals 
occasionally get shot for wild ones, and now and then a wily ryot will try 
and extort money, and pretend that a wild buffalo which had been shot 
belonged to his herd. 

Once I was out with a party : four gentlemen were shooting from howdahs ; 
I, 88 was very often my custom, was riding with a spear, ready to go after 
any old boars which might be roused up. The party found a solitary buffalo, 
and after a great deal of heavy firing killed it. As they were coming to the 
dying animal there was a hot contention as to whom the credit of killing the 
bull belonged : one claimed first blood, and another first effective shot, and 
so on. I rode up and remarked that there was a strap round the neck, to 
which at some time a 1>ell had evidently been attached. The contention 
ceased, and the four gentlemen had subsequently to pay Rs. 30, I think, 
between them. On the whole, buffalo-shooting from the howdah is tame 
sport, and only pursued when no better offers. 

The same reasons which interfere with tiger-shooting on foot and stalking 
large deer in Eastern Bengal apply to the shooting of buffaloes on foot. A 
sportsman cannot make his way through such jungles as buffaloes frequent, 
nor can he see for any long distance through the perennial leafy thickets or 
grass-jungles. The buffalo cannot exist far from water ; he delights to lie 
for hours in the heat of the day immersed in water or watery mud where 
flies cannot teaze : I think he prefers the cool water to the dense shade of 
thick forest of high grass ; but he is to be found in these also, but never far 
from water, and, as a rule, the deep marsh or mud in which he feeds is as 
di£Gicult for a sportsman to travel through as the grass, often fifteen feet high, 
or the pathless thorny forest of trees from which the leaf is never absent. 

Besides it is quite as dangerous to expose yourself on foot to the attack of 
an infuriated buffalo, whether it be a cow with her calf or a solitary angry 
bull urna, as to stand before a tiger in his charge. A number of steady men 
together will stop a tiger; but I doubt much if three men, unless armed 
with weapons of very large bores, could invariably bring an old urna to the 
ground ; his hide is much tougher than a tiger's skin, and the thick bones 



172 SPOKT IN EASTERN BENGAL, 

of the head and the protection afforded by his long and massive homs^ and 
the diflSculty of causing a bullet to penetrate to a vital spot, all tend to add 
to the risk. Yet many buffaloes are regularly shot on foot and fix>m boats^ 
and I have often pursued them in this manner^ though I never laid myself 
out for buffalo-shooting or cared to spend time and money in this sport. 



Letter No. 43. 

Bufbloes at Backergunge. Sport with the same. Knock over the big bull : he gets up 
unexpectedly and I get a ducking. — My friend the Deputy Collector tossed by a Bufiklo 
into a tree and killed. — Wild Cattle at Chur Siddhee. 

Buffaloes us^d to be very numerous in the uncultivated newly-formed 
churs and islands in the tideway of the Megna. They inhabit the Soonder- 
bunds and were at one time common in Jessore and Furreedpore; there 
are some herds in the Bhowal forest ; they are common in all the 
Brahmapootra churs, and at the base of the Shooshung Hills and in Assam, 
and there are some in Rajshahye and Pumeah and in all the best sporting 
districts. I never shot them on foot except in Backergunge, where there 
were no elephants to be got, and where the country was a network of 
tidal streams. 

There was a gentleman in the revenue department when I was stationed 
at Backergunge who was very fond of buffalo-shooting, and I went out 
with him sometimes. He had means of getting information and used to 
hear if any herds took up their quarters in chur jungles with which he was 
acquainted. These islands were small and uncultivated; towards their 
centres they were covered with very thick high grass and hoogla ; the soil 
was sandy mud into which your feet sank to the ankle, and the growth of 
herbage was so strong and thick that a man could hardly make his way 
through it. There were numerous paths made by the buffaloes, and in these 
there were many marks of hogs and occasionally of tigers. On the 
borders of these islands were stretches of sandy mudbanks covered with 
closely-growing coarse herbage and grass about a foot high, and to these 
open spots the buffaloes used to come about sunset and remain all night. 
Our object was to find the herd out feeding and get shots at them as they 
passed going back to the heavy jungles ; and sometimes when a herd entered 
an island we used to row quickly round in a fishing-canoe, and the rowers of 
our larger boat used to shout and try and drive the animals across a stream 
into the next island. 

My friend had two short single-barrelled rifles of tremendous bore^ 



DEPUTY COLLECTOR KILLED BY A BUFFALO. 173 

carrying spherical balls of four ounces each; what the huge conical ball 
weighed I am sure I do not know ; but a native carried each rifle and kept 
close to us. I had only ordinary double-barrelled smooth-bores and a rifle. 
Once we had seen a herd walk quietly into a small island^ and had gone 
round in the fishing-boat and had landed and were making our way to the 
place where we expected the herd to pass across^ when they all came slowly 
out of the jungle just in front of us and without perceiving us ; we stooped 
down and the whole herd^ followed by a large bull with massive horns^ 
slowly walked into the stream^ and there they all lay down with nothing 
above water but their noses. We resolved to make a rush for it and to 
salute them as they rose out of the water. This we managed well^ and we 
fired nearly all our battery into them ; and just as they got to the opposite 
edge of the stream the big bull turned round and stood; I seized my 
friend's rifle and let the bull have it well on the shoulder^ and he fell as if 
quite dead ; no other buffalo remained. I had fired six shots at them before 
taking the rifle^ and my companion had fired as many shots as he could^ 
whether at the bull or at the others I did not know. We had to go back to 
the canoe and then we came to the spot ; the bull was lying as if dead. We 
landed and reached him^ and I put my foot on his huge broad back when he 
suddenly jumped up ; I made one plunge into the river^ dropping my gun, 
and struck out into deep water. However, the bull sank down again on to 
the bank ; my friend then gave him another plug as he lay, but he was dead : 
except for the ducking and the wetting of my ammunition I was none the 
worse. 

A deputy collector who had long been stationed at Mymensing, a most 
experienced sportsman, noted for having killed more bears in that district 
than any one else, and who had been at the death of hundreds of buffaloes 
and scores of tigers, was killed by foolishly attempting alone to shoot a 
solitary male buffalo on foot. He had left Mymensing and was stationed 
near the Soonderbunds, where he got but little in the way of sport. Word 
was brought to him that a buffalo was standing in a certain spot and my 
friend at once went for him. The position taken up by the buffalo was one 
which such an experienced sportsman should have known was not fit to be 
approached. The animal was in tree-jungle, the mud was too deep for a 
man to move quickly in, and the foliage was so thick that you could not see 
the urna till close to him. However, the deputy collector approached as 
close as he could and fired one shot ; in an instant the beast rushed at him 
and tossed him like a baU into a thick tree and he clung to the branches ; 
the bull went off. When the poor man was got down it was found that he 
was badly hurt about the chest. He was immediately sent by boat to 
Calcutta and taken to the hospital, where he lingered a short time and died. 
This gentleman must have been demented when he exposed himself to this 
risk, for he could not have been ignorant of the danger ; in addition to his 



174 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

exploits as a shikarry he was famous as a snake-catcher and had made 
valuable collections of poisonous snakes for museums and collectors^ and 
these he used always to catch alive. 

On Siddhee and Hatteah and some other islands on the Megna there used 
to exist a few herds of wild cattle^ and possibly there may be some such 
animals still in those parts. These were considered to be the descendants of 
some domestic cattle that had survived some of the disastrous inundations 
I have referred to in earlier letters^ or else they had been carried off by tidal 
waves from the mainland and landed on these islands when deserted by 
human beings^ and had gradually become wild and multiplied. 

They were numerous in Siddhee when first I visited the island for hog- 
hunting, and once we arranged to have a hunt after them. We shot a few 
and then I thought I would ride at them with a gun. Two of us accordingly 
went away with a herd of about twenty ; I singled out a fine red bull and 
shouted to my companion to ride the big black-and-white bull. I dropped 
my animal with a single ball and then followed up the herd and found that 
the black-and-white bull was still with them ; in less than a quarter of an 
hour I was alongside of him and he fell an easy victim. My Mend got a 
spill in a nullah and broke the stock of his gun. 

We anticipated having a fine Christmas dinner— oxtail soup^ roast surloin 
of beef^ and marrow toast ; but we were terribly disappointed ; the soup^ the 
surloin^ and the marrow were all alike uneatable^ and had a strong salt oyster- 
like taste. This we fancied arose from the fact that there was no good fresh 
water on the island ; that of the river and streams was salt and nasty. As 
the sport was tame and the flesh useless^ I never went after these wild cattle 
again. 

I have now long harped on sport with the bullet at large game^ and think 
it best to vary the monotony with the recital of some most enjoyable days 
with the smooth-bores and No. 5 shot. I have plenty more to say to you 
about the pursuit of leopards and deer^ bears and rhinoceros with ball ; but 
in my next letter I will take you to the Tippera hills and the beautiful quick- 
flying jungle-cock glancing with his bright red plumage in the pleasant sun 
of January^ and will for the present bid adieu to the rifle and the long line of 
beating elephants. 



JUNGLE-FOWL. 175 



Letter No. 44. 

Jung^e-fowL — ^Tippent Jungle-fowl superior to those of most districts. Excellent sport to be 
got. Jungles described. — ^The Jungle-cock. — Mj great fondness for this sport. I shoot 
on Elephants, which is novel. — Chittagong ideas as to sport : how to work it. — ^Use of 
Elephants. — Preservation. 

Of all the sport to be got with smooth-bores and small shot in Eastern 
Bengal, there is none that gives such great satisfaction and such little labour^ 
trouble^ and disappointment as junglefowl-shooting from the howdah at the 
base of the Tippera hills in Christmas or New Year time. Jungle-fowl are 
to be found in small numbers in almost all districts from the south of 
Calcutta to the north of Pumeah. Probably there are none in Moorshedabad^ 
Kishnaghur^ or Jessore now, and there are none in Noakholly, which, 
howeyer, extends close up to the Tippera hills ; but junglefowl-shooting in 
roost districts is as different from the sport in Tippera as the bird itself is in 
flavour and numbers. In the Bhowal jungles, as in most parts of Bengal, a 
few birds are shot now and then among other kinds of game, and their flesh 
is rather tasteless and dry and no better than that of the ordinary bazaar 
moorghee ; but in Tippera flocks of birds present wild continued sport for 
the whole long day, and the young full-grown cockerells properly roasted are 
of a delicious gamey flavour. But even in Tippera, Chittagong, and Mymen- 
sing the sport differs in places for no reason that I could cTcr ascertain. 
Similar hills and plains, similar crops, food, and jungles are to be found all 
the way from Comilla to Chittagong, and far to the south of this. In some 
places for miles the birds are abundant, and two guns with proper arrangement 
may kill from ten to twenty brace. In other places, exactly the same in 
appearance and character, two guns can with difficulty bag three brace. 
The bird is not, I believe, exactly migratory, and in many districts clings to 
the same spot all the year round ; where it breeds there it may be found 
winter or summer. But in the favoured spots in Tippera it appears in great 
numbers about harvest time, and but few birds are left by the middle of 
March. Of course it may be said they are attracted from the hilly forests 
by the ripe rice-crop. It may be so ; but why do they not appear in equal 
numbers in the neighbourhood of similar crops' at the base of the hills which 
are continuations of the same range ? Jungle-fowl are scattered over all 
Chittagong, Arracan, Burmah, Sylhet, and Cachar. I have met sportsmen 
from all these districts and they say they get a few jungle-fowl chiefly by 
sneaking up to them, but in none of these places did I ever hear that you 
might enjoy a long day^s sport after jungle-fowl. 

I worked up the whole country for jungle-fowl from Comilla to the south 
of Chittagong, and having ascertained where the best sport was to be found, 
after a year or two never revisited the country where the birds were scarce. 



176 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

The best shooting-ground began about twelve miles from the head station of 
Tippera and extended for about twenty-five miles ; then there was a break. 
Good ground^ but not so good^ was to be found about Zaroorgunge in the 
Chittagong district on the side nearest Tippera; but here there was only 
really good shooting for one day. From this country to Chittagong birds 
were scarce. In the interior of the Chittagong district there were some 
excellent jungles^ but only to be found out by experience. In the rest of 
Tippera and in Sylhet and Cachar there were no places where good sport 
could be got ; at least that was the result of my inquiry. At the foot of the 
Shooshung Hills in Mymensing the sport was nearly as good as in Tippera ; 
but Shooshung is distant from headquarters^ and the district of Mymensing 
is so full of game that no one except myself apparently cared to go so far for 
junglefowl-shooting. In general you will find few Bengal sportsmen who 
have enjoyed really fine junglefowl-shooting. 

The bird of Eastern Bengal is Gallus ferruginetis — a black-breasted red 
gamefowl in miniature^ but not so small as the little bantam seen in England. 
It has rather a small comb and wattles with a white ear-lobe^ and is an entirely 
different bird from the Madras jungle-fowl (G. sonneratii), which has the 
peculiar wing with spots like yellow sealing-wax on it^ and belongs to 
Southern India. The birds that I shot in Cuttack had red ear-lobes. Neither 
in Cuttack was it customary to make parties for junglefowl-shooting. A 
few were shot occasionally ; but they were numerous^ and I feel convinced 
that^ with active truth-telling shikarries and proper inquiries^ heavy bags of 
jungle-fowl might have been made in Orissa; but sportsmen preferred to toil 
up to the knees in swamps after snipe — as others had done before — to 
searching out detached jungles at a distance, where they might have shot all 
day dry-shod and enjoyed a great variety in their sport. So greatly did the 
Tippera sport take my fancy^ that whether I was stationed in that district or 
at NoakhoUy or at Chittagong^ I always got up or attended the parties at 
Chowdagong and Juggernathdiggy for eight years. It was a mere matter of 
trouble and expense. From Chittagong I drove about thirty miles along an 
excellent road ; I then travelled all night in a palkee. From Noakholly, after 
a rather early dinner^ I put myself in my palkee and reached the meet at the 
Tippera hills about daybreak. The travelling was thus always done at night 
and the two or three holidays were spent in the jungles. 

I was introduced to the sport in 1850^ and at first followed the beaten 
track and did as the others did ; that is^ we went out early in the morning 
on foot^ and shot on foot^ returning to a late breakfast^ and riding back some- 
times on ponies. In the afternoon generally we had another turn at it. But 
I soon altered all this and introduced shooting from the howdah^ thus 
trebling the bags and halving the trouble and fatigue. 

When first I joined my appointment at Tippera, no gentleman there or at 
Chittagong possessed a howdah or guddy ; no one apparently had thought 



JUNGLEFOWL-SHOOTING. 177 

of shooting at mere birds jErom elephants* For tigers or buffaloes it was of 
course the right thing to do; but the idea of taking out elephants for poor 
little jungle-fowl I! I was looked on as a madman; but after the first meet 
and the grand sport we got I never heard any more of parties on foot during 
the remainder of my time. So little did the sportsmen of Chittagong know 
about the game of their districts, that when I first joined an appointment 
there I had to march from Tippera, keeping pace with the bullock-carts which 
carried my furniture and baggage ; and of course I shot all day, joining the 
party of servants, carts, and horses before nightfall. On the last morning I 
shot some jungle-fowl, barking-deer, a muthoora, and two hares. In the 
afternoon I rode into the head station, and meeting the collector, who 
considered himself an experienced Chittagong sportsman, he inquired if I had 
any sport, and I told him of my bag. He said it was impossible, for there 
were no hares in Chittagong — they must be young deer. I told him I had 
shot from boyhood and had killed four kinds of hares and five kinds of deer, 
and was not likely to confuse a hoofed with a toed quadruped; but he hardly 
believed me till he saw the hares himself I There was room, therefore, for 
improvement among these gentry, and I rather flatter myself that I did 
quicken their ideas of sport during those years. I was a lunatic for intro- 
ducing howdah-shooting into the Tippera jungles, and stark staring mad for 
attempting to pass elephants to Duckin Shabazpore in boats ; but all my 
great success in junglefowl-shooting and tiger-killing was owing to these two 
mad acts. If you intend to distinguish yourself as a shikarry you must be 
prepared to strike out new paths, it will not do to content yourself with 
merely following the beaten track. 

There are three requisites for good sport in junglefowl-shooting : first, 
plenty of birds ; second, detached jungles ; third, these jungles must be free 
from thorns. If there are no detached jungles, none but those which begin 
at the end of the rice cultivation and spread over the hills in unbroken 
masses of forest, the birds will come out to feed in the stubbles and run into 
the cover at the first disturbance, and it is impossible to get properly at them. 
A few birds may be stalked up to and potted on the ground — very poor sport 
indeed. Even if the jungles be smaU and detached, if they are full of thorn 
bushes, as is very commonly the case at the foot of these hills, and even if 
these coverts be well stocked with game, the birds cannot be beaten out or 
made to fly. If elephants beat such thorny places they do it slowly ; the birds 
run and will not rise, and human beaters cannot pass through these jungles 
at all. Wherever the native hillmen have cut down the virgin jungles and 
cultivated for a few seasons, according to the system known as '^ jhoom ^' 
when they abandon the clearings the jungle which springs up is invariably 
thorny and useless as regards junglefowl-shooting. Therefore you need 
never waste time in trying for sport in ground that has been jhoomed. Your 
attention must be confined to patches of virgin jungle which can be beaten 

N 



178 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

out by human beaters and to such peninsula-like jungles as will admit of 
your placing howdah elephants between the jungle nearest the plain and 
the hill forest^ so as to admit of the birds being forced to take wing and fly 
over your head. They are quite certain to fly to the hills^ and there is no 
difiBculty in arranging stations for the guns if you know the jungles. But 
without elephants most of the best ground is useless. There are hundreds of 
patches of good jungle^ say of about five acres each in extent^ joined to the 
hills by strips of jungle where the bushes are seven or eight feet high. Here 
on your elephant you may obtain the best of shooting; but on foot the 
branches would be above your head^ and you would not be able to fire a shot. 
On foot, eight or nine brace of birds made a most unusually large bag for 
four or five sportsmen ; but on elephants, with one companion, I have often 
shot more than twenty-three brace, and singly I once killed twenty brace. 

To enable me to obtain the best possible sport, I consulted the coUectorate 
maps, and then with Budderuddeen shikarry, in course of time, marked the 
whole of the jungles between Comilla and the Fenny river in a private map, 
distinguishing from practical examination the really good jungles from the 
thorny, or from those where, from some unknown reason, birds were not 
numerous. 

I tried also, in a very moderate fashion, to preserve — ^that is, to prevent the 
flocks from being interfered with or disturbed before the shooting-parties 
began. In each village, near the good ground, there were always two or 
three men who possessed guns or old muskets, and who used to creep up to 
the flocks of jungle-fowl when feeding and kill two or more at a shot. This 
was done for the value of the birds, which were offered for sale at Comilla. 
To stop this, I either paid these men a small sum to leave the game alone or 
arranged with them to procure beaters and musicians for us, by which means 
employment was given to their friends and a little money made ; or sometimes 
I got petty police appointments for them, and in one or two instances I gave 
the families petty tenures in some of the culturable churs under settlement in 
NoakhoUy. Thus in one way or another we got the shooting before the 
flocks were broken up or driven into the hills. A flock generally consisted of 
about twelve or fifteen birds ; in the early season young cock birds pre- 
dominated. 



VARIETY OF ANIMALS AND BIRDS IN TIPPERA. 179 



Letter No. 45. 

Charming variety of animals and birds met with in Tippera. Game birds; Pigeons; 
bright-plumaged birds. The Muthoora. Polyplectron. — A government road all along the 
best ground. — Good sport and agreeable meeting. — Musicians and hunters. — ^Birds easily 
missed. — Snipe-shooting between jungles. 

One charm in this pleasant sport was the great variety of animals and birds 
we met with. Once we came on a dead tiger ; he was about a third grown^ 
and had died apparently the night before from starvation. We never saw a 
live tiger, but frequently came on tracks. Twice we killed leopards. Bark- 
ing-deer {Cenms auretui) were always to be found; these little animals, 
smaller than roedeer, seldom faced the open, and were difficult to shoot in 
the leafy shrub-jungle. The beaters were always greatly excited about them ; 
we generally killed one or two each day, and once I bagged four. We 
generally got some beautifully marked cats. I killed some hill tree-cats 
(Paradoxurus)} these are not cats, but curious long-tailed animals with peculiar 
split nostrils, in appearance like the raccoon of picture-books, with feet very 
different from cats. Jerdon's ^Mammals' was not published in my Tippera 
days ; but I believe these animals are rightly called Paradoxurus, There was 
another animal to be seen himting about the marshy ground at the edge of 
the jungles every morning and evening ; the natives called it sometimes the 
hill-otter and sometimes hill-badger, but I could see no resemblance to either 
otter or badger in the creature ; it was not at all uncommon, but I was never 
able to ascertain its name, and I have never been able to identify it in any 
museum. 

Two or more kinds of squirrels were usually shot ; but among these the 
ground-squirrel, so common near Calcutta, was not found. There were a 
few hares, but not many. Hares are scarce in Tippera and Chittagong, and 
I never saw one in Noakholly. 

Birds of all descriptions and of most brilliant plumage were more numerous 
in these jungles than in any part of India known to me. Hombills, pigeons, 
trogons, minivets, green bulbuls, shdmfis, rose-finches, and several sorts of 
parrots were always to be seen, and from their beauty and peculiarities were 
almost always shot. As an ornithologist I was deeply interested in these 
birds. Of varieties of game birds there were muthoora {Evplocamus Hors- 
fieldi, or black-breasted kalij), hill-partridges {Arboricola airogularis) , poly- 
plectrons, and occasionally peafowl, though I am ashamed to say I cannot 
state if these belonged to Pavo cristatus or Pavo muticus, probably they 
were the south-eastern or Burmese form. In addition to these, in each 
marshy retired uncultivated nook snipe were exceedingly numerous. 

I cannot pass all these birds by without a little fiirther notice, for though 

n2 



180 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

most of the first mentioned cannot be considered game birds^ yet they always 
attracted attention and were shot at^ and when bagged were greatly admired^ 
and their plumes and feathers were often saved for ornament. 

Pigeons may be considered game. The little Indian ground-dove {Chalco- 
phaps indicus) is a most lovely bird of several colours, with metallic lustre, 
quite different from the ordinary green pigeons. This beautiful creature 
used to flash out of the thickest covers and fly fast and low, offering a fair 
but difficult shot. The feathers of this bird were most peculiar; they are 
attached to the skin by a diminutive quill, and come out so readily that it is 
most difficult to prepare a specimen for stuffing. 

The largest pigeon {Carpophaga), or green- or bronze-backed imperial 
pigeon, was common. This bird is larger than a wood-pigeon ; but it is very 
wary. I only shot a few when in India ; they used to sit on the top of the 
highest trees, and occasionally come flying within shot. They were grand 
birds. The common green pigeon and two smaller beautiful kinds were 
always to be seen in flocks in the cold season ; also small bronze doves. 

A trogon {Trogon harpactes) was seen at each party. This beautiful bird 
cannot be seen without attracting attention; his plumage is crimson and 
brown, and in places marked like a mallard's ; his breast is scarlet. 

The hunting-crow {Cissa venatoria) is not very rare. This bird shows 
most lovely shades of changing green. It is often caged, but loses in 
captivity, and even when stuffed, much of its delicate colouring. The 
sham& is here, and towards evening its notes, quite equal to the nightingale's, 
may be heard. Few of us are ever in the jungles at night-time. This is a 
most highly prized cage-bird, and a class of natives obtain a livelihood by 
procuring grasshoppers for its food ; without insect food of this kind the bird 
sickens and dies. 

The bird-catchers of Tippera are most skilful, and will bring you almost 
any bird you may order alive in a certain number of days. They are adepts 
with bird-lime, nets, traps, and snares, and have cunning devices for getting 
near to birds. Neither Jerdon nor Hume personally visited these parts, and 
Jerdon's ^ Birds of India ' does not include the ornithology of the districts of 
Eastern Bengal east of the Megna or south of Dacca. He considered the 
fauna of this region to belong to Burmah. Hume's ^ Stray Feathers' was 
not published in my day, amd my study of ornithology when in Tippera and 
Chittagong was carried on under difficulty, as no good book was procurable. 

Of game birds other than jungle-fowl, the chief prize here is the muthoora. 
This is Euplocamus Horafieldiy or the black-breasted kalij. The male is 
black, with a little white on the back, with a crest, and the parts about the 
eye resemble those of a pheasant. The female is brownish and bears the 
same proportionate colouring with reference to the male as the greyhen does 
to the British blackcock. These birds are nearly always in pairs, and I have 
generally shot them right and left. A pair or two is all that are met with in 



GAME BIRDS. 181 

a day's shooting in these parts. They seem rather more numerous in Chit- 
tagong. Hume says their flesh is white and inferior : I wholly differ with 
him^ and I feel sure he never tasted a Tippera muthoora at its best. 

In the opinion of several Tippera sportsmen and myself^ this bird is the 
very best upon table of all Indian game ; it beats the floriken^ and surpasses 
the Scotch grouse^ and^ to the best of my recollection, the flesh was both 
light and dark. But it is remarkable that the flavour of a Tippera hill 
cockerell in January is very greatly superior to that of a jungle-cock of the 
Bhowal jungles north of Dacca, and probably the muthoora varies in its 
flavour with localities aud seasons. The tail of the muthoora is peculiar ; it 
has no resemblance to that of a jungle-fowl or a pheasant ; the two centre 
feathers are exceedingly broad and stiff. 

The bamboo-partridge {Arbcricola atroffularis) is often seen and very 
seldom bagged : in all my experience I only shot one ; I have seen a few shot 
and the bird-catchers would get as many as were ordered. It darts un- 
expectedly out of thick tree-jungle, and flies with the utmost rapidity to the 
hill-forest close by and runs off ; a man who can shoot one out of four of 
these birds is a far better shot than any one I ever met. 

The polyplectron, a remarkable game bird with several spurs on its legs, 
and spotted all over with peacock-like small spots, exists in these jungles, is 
more abundant near Chittagong, and was numerous between Cachar and 
Looshye-land, when I accompanied the troops in an expedition to avenge 
the murder of Cachar garden tea coolies ; but I never bagged more than two 
of these birds. Occasionally I saw them, generally a mere glimpse, as they 
ran through the bushes ; but the bird-catchers could get them. They are 
wary and very difficult to put on wing. 

Peafowl are scarce in Tippera and Chittagong, and by no means so common 
as in most districts of Eastern Bengal. I shot a few, and I understood 
from Budderuddeen and shikarries that they were more plentiiul in the hot 
weather and rains than in the cold season in the jungle-fowl country. I 
must now, after this long digression, hark back to junglefowl-shooting. 

I had arranged to meet some Tippera friends for junglefowl-shooting in 
the best ground at the base of the hills in the neighbourhood of Juggemath* 
diggy and Chowdagong on the 5th of January. Our party consisted of the 
collector and the doctor of Tippera, the magistrate of Chittagong, and myself. 
The three others rode to the meet, which was at a bungalow belonging to the 
Boad Department, which was very useful, as the rooms were warm and water- 
tight. We had also tents ; these were pitched on the embankment which 
formed the road. There was a large tank of clear water close by ; these 
splendid tanks are to be found scattered all over the Tippera district ; I have 
seen none so flne in other districts. This road stretches from Doudcandee 
through Tippera and Chittagong to Arracan in the province of Burmah. 
That great proconsul. Lord Dalhousie, directed that the road should be put 



182 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

in order, and always kept sufficiently good for the march of troops and 
artillery at all seasons. To a great extent this order was attempted to be 
enforced ; whether the bridges and arrangements for crossing all the rivers 
were ever completed I cannot say, but the works were being carried on in my 
time, and the staging bmigalows were useful resting-places to a sportsman 
marching on this road. The hills often come to within half a mile of the 
road, and to one acquainted with the country good sport at various kinds of 
game birds could be got close to this road for hundreds of miles, and I almost 
venture to hope that this sport exists still; it can only be obtained in 
perfection by those who have opportunities of learning about the ground, and 
I know that most of it is seldom visited by English sportsmen who can find 
leisure enough to make themselves acquainted with the good as well as the 
inferior beats. In places duck-shooting is to be got, and snipe are exceedingly 
numerous ; but the best marshes and pools are inside the first range of hills 
and not easily found out. The three gentlemen referred to arrived at the 
trysting-place the night before; I travelled at night by palkee from Noak- 
hoUy, and woke up the sleepers at 8 a.m. with the sound of the horn. 

The morning was foggy, and the thick moist vapour did not clear off suf- 
ficiently to admit of sport till near 10 a.m. Then followed a bright cloudless 
day, with no heat that could be complained of — as glorious weather as Italy 
could show. We had four howdahs and six elephants ; elephants are of little 
use as beaters here, but invaluable for the howdah, from which you can 
command all the best shooting. We assemble close to the jungle to be first 
beaten, and present a very miscellaneous appearance : there is the band of 
musicians — some dozen individuals whose trade it is to play discordant music 
at nautches, births, and marriages, on instruments consisting of drums, flutes, 
and wind instruments to which I cannot give names ; but when all these are in 
full force together they make the hearts of the poor jungle-fowl tremble. These 
musicians are not much use as actual beaters, but with the aid and persuasion 
of chuprassies and the mahouts on the two spare elephants, they are led somehow 
into the middle of the jungle, and when the firing begins, they all play up as 
loud as they can, and this prevents game from running back. I look on these 
tuneful gentry as very useful in this sport. Next there are about fifty able- 
bodied men, each armed with a good stick ; these should be men accustomed 
to hill- work, and able and willing to force their way through thickets and 
light thorny jungle. They are under the command of two Sirdars, and have 
been got together by my orders sent some days before ; they come as much 
for pay as sport, and I have to address them, and insist on making them 
understand that those who do not do full work cannot receive full pay. 

The first jungle to be stirred is, Budderuddeen says, full of birds, and has 
deer, hares, and hogs in it also ; it is shaped like a peninsula, and across the 
neck of the peninsula, which separates the island of jungle from the main sea 
of hill-forest, the howdah elephants are put in position. The so-called island 



MUSICIANS AND HUNTERS. 183 

is surrounded by thick rice-stubble, and Budderuddeen marshalls the army 
of musicians, beaters, and the two elephants outside the furthest edge and 
awaits my signal. When we are all in position I blow the horn and the 
beating commences, and soon some jungle-fowl are seen and heard flying 
about in the island : the men on the elephants try to keep the beaters in 
line, when an old hog gets up and rushes off towards the hills ; this decom- 
poses the whole arrangement ; some of the beaters rush after the hog, and 
some, afraid of him, leave the jungle, and I have to begin to beat again. 
After a time the further half of the jungle is beaten through, and a wary old 
cock makes an attempt to slip over in rapid flight to the hills, and the 
magistrate and the doctor fire four barrels at him, though quite out of range. 
These two gentlemen have expressed their opinion that "jungle-fowl must be, 
like barn-door fowls, easy to hit and hardly worth aiming at. Now, talk about 
snipe, they require skill I '' But, somehow, the two gentlemen at the end of 
the day can only claim one bird between them, and they dispute as to the 
right to that. 

No sooner are the shots heard than the musicians make a dreadful din ; 
each Hindoo beater shouts '^ Ram, Ram 1 " and the Mahommedans cry " Allah, 
Allah I " and a cloud of some twenty-five bright-coloured birds, with ruddy 
plumage glancing in the sunshine, burst over our heads, all making to the 
hills. The collector and I fire as hard as we can ; we have each three 
double-barrels loaded with No. 5 shot, my fourth gun has ball in it. We load 
again, and firing is warm until the island is beaten out. The excitement 
caused by two barking-deer is great, and at this our opening beat there is a 
good deal of confusion, and a considerable time also has necessarily to be 
consumed in picking up the fallen birds, which for the most part lie in 
thick scrubby bush-jungle above three feet high. 

This done, we started for the next suitable piece of jungle ; on the way we 
came on an extensive piece of marshy deep ground which had not been lately 
cultivated; this was full of snipe, so we got down from the howdahs and 
loaded with No. 8 shot, and made line and steadily beat up this ground. 
Here the magistrate and doctor were quite at home and made some very 
pretty shooting. The birds sat well as the sun was high ; but they all flew to 
the hills, we could mark none down. We now remounted on the howdahs 
and arranged for the next beat. The jungle was not so nicely shaped : we had 
to beat parallel with the hills and to make different plans for the guns ; two 
were sent ahead, the collector and the doctor, while the magistrate and I kept 
more level with the beaters and tried to make them keep line. On our 
elephants we could do this and shoot, but sportsmen on foot could not have 
shot at one bird in ten. There was considerable excitement when the doctor 
bagged a barking-deer with shot; it came almost within ten yards of him; he 
had never killed a deer before. The collector bagged a woodcock; we 
generally shot two or three of these birds every year. We all got plenty of 
difficult shots at jungle-fowl. 



184 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 46. 

Payment of beaters.— Theft of Jangle-fowl. Summary puniahment of thiaf. The day's 
bag. — Pleasant evening party. — Laige game must naturally remove to distant places 
before civilization. The hills afford safe retreat.^ Jungle-fowl shot by sneaking and by 
crackers, and occasionally when beating for other game. 

By the time this beat was finished we ordered a rest for half an hour and 
took some tiffin ; the beaters^ mahouts, and musicians smoked and ate choora 
and the elephants had water and feasted on bamboos. I then mustered all the 
beaters and gave to each man a green gun-wad ; without production of this 
wad no beater could receive his pay at the close of the day. At times I had 
been cheated — ^men preseiited themselves in the mornings did no beating, 
absented themselves during the hard work, and appeared again to receive 
their pay ; the wad arrangement stopped all this. 

Then we went on again till nearly dark, twice getting down to shoot snipe. 
I had the luck to bag a brace of muthoora, right and left, and another deer 
and a number of beautiful-plumaged birds, some pigeons, squirrels, and 
curious auimals were bagged. 

In the course of the afternoon some birds which the collector and I shot, 

and which were apparently well killed, could not be found, and I soon 

ascertained that these were stolen. There were some huts close by, and I 

inquired of a boy of about ten if any one had taken any birds into the houses, 

and he said Mahmoud Ali had just taken one in. In a moment Budderuddeen 

was inside and returned triumphant with a jungle-cock in one hand and the 

culprit in the other ; this was a clear case of theft. Two of us were magistrates, 

so we tried the offender on the spot, and convicted him on his confession and 

sentenced him to twelve strokes with a rattan. This sentence I inflicted with 

my own hand : Mahmoud Ali was stripped and held over the parapet of a 

bridge, and I laid on the strokes sharply. The collector said I reminded him of 

the '^ noble judge who carried out his own decrees." The bridge was always 

afterwards called the bridge of the '^ Huk-tuzveez,'' or righteous judgment. 

Never in succeeding years did we suffer from this kind of theft in this 

country. 

After we reached the tents, the beaters and musicians were assembled^ and 
those who held green wads passed, and all were paid, and the Hindoos received 
a tot of strong native spirits. You should always provide yourself with a 
supply of small coin for the payment of beaters; regular daily payment 
procures for you a good name, and beaters are then always to be got in 
sufficient numbers. Payment should be made by yourself, or the chuprassies 
and servants and Sirdars appropriate a large share and the beaters get cheated. 
The gift of a little grog too has a most cheering result. 



A DATS BAG. 185 

The bag on this day^ which waa rather a better day than usual^ was as 
follows : — 

Head. 

Jungle-fowl^ 26i couple 58 

Muthoora 2 

Bamboo-partridge 1 

Woodcock 1 

Carpophaga^ or imperial pigeon 1 

Ground-doTes 5 

Green pigeons^ some of a small kind 10 

Snipe, 11 couple 22 

Deer 2 

Hares 4 

Squirrels of different kinds 8 

Paradoxurus 1 

The curious animal, call it otter of dry land 1 

Head 106 

All the jungle-fowl except one were shot by the collector and myself. The 
magistrate at the end held out his empty shot-cases and said he had never 
fired away so much shot before; he did not approve of professional slaughter 
and owned that he did not kill much, but was positive that he killed the cock 
which the doctor claimed. 

Jungle-fowl fly very fast and strongly, and when backed by a breeze are 
very hard to hit if a person is not accustomed to the sport. I always used 
8^ drachms of Curtis and Harvey's No. 2 diamond grain powder and 1^ 
ounce of No. 5 shot : I have known larger shot used, but it was not more 
effective ; birds knocked over at long shots with large shot were seldom found. 
The scenery at the foot of these hills is charming ; there is a great variety of 
forest trees and shrub-jungle, abundance of flowers at times, a few quick- 
running rivulets, and the excitement and sport when the jungle-fowl come 
quickly and in fair numbers overhead is more to my Uking than that which 
an English pheasant-battue affords. 

We passed a very pleasant evening. The collector had brought his capital 
cook; I had brought with me from Noakholly a large bectifish and some 
prawns, nearly half the size of lobsters. In addition to gram-fed mutton we 
had roast jungle-fowl, cockerells with blunt knobs for spurs, and bread sauce, 
and these were followed by a dish with a woodcock in the centre and four 
snipes to keep him company; the champagne was dry. After dinner we 
played one rubber of whist ; but we were more inclined to talk than to play 
the silent scientific game, so we took to hot grog and tobacco, sitting and 
talking about sport in our great-coats, for the night was chilly and we had no 
fireplace. After turning in rather early, we carried on a similar attack against 



186 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

the jungle-fowl next daj, only the elephants and beaters were sent off an 
hour earlier^ and after breakfast we cantered on horseback to some ground a 
little distance off. After dinner on this the second day^ I got into my 
palkee and found myself after a fair night's rest at my house at NoakhoUy 
about daybreak. 

The existence of large game in Bengal depends on the existence of uncul- 
tivated land^ either in the shape of extensive forest or of newly formed or 
newly forming jungles^ such as those to be seen on churs and recent alluvial 
formations. As these strongholds for large game disappear and decrease 
before the plough, the tigers, buffaloes, bears, large deer, and hogs must, for 
the most part, disappear and retreat to more distant shelters : an exception 
may be made with reference to large areas such as Maldah, which have 
relapsed into uninhabited and abandoned jungles ; for there are many places, 
now covered with trees, jungles, and swamps, where cities, villages, and 
cultivation undoubtedly existed not many centuries ago. But, as a rule, 
large game will gradually disappear before cultivation, and the sportsman 
will have to follow the pursuit of such to the more distant forests and their 
borders. There are, however, most extensive tracts of country, either hilly 
and covered with forest, or rocky stony countries in which cultivation can- 
not yet be made to pay. Of the rocky dry countries I cannot speak ; but to 
the east^ the south, and the north of Eastern Bengal are forests and marshy 
regions, which cannot alter much for very many generations, and the hill- 
forests which commence on the borders of Chittagong, Tippera, Sylhet, 
Mymensing, and which extend all along the foot of the Himalayas, are of this 
nature. I see no reason why the jungle-fowl should not survive in the «ame 
numbers as it has hitherto done for centuries. During my time enormous 
areas of Noakholly, Backergunge, and other districts altered : tree-jungles, 
marshy plains, and jheels became cultivated; tigers disappeared, and hogs 
only existed in deserted village jungles and tracts of land which had relapsed 
into an uncultivated state. But I saw no difference as regarded the ground 
in which I shot jungle«f owl in Tippera ; as it had been before the East India 
Company's rule, so it was when Her Majesty assumed the title of Empress of 
India. The rice cultivation had long reached the foot of the hills, but neither 
rice nor any other crop advantageous to the native Bengalee would grow 
well on the ascending slopes. The jungle-fowl therefore was, so to speak, 
undisturbed as regarded his forest stronghold, and could seek, as he had 
always done, fallen grains of rice in the stubble at the forest verge. His 
great enemy was the Mahommedan who had purchased the discarded musket 
sold by the Government when rifles were supplied to native soldiers. If you 
can keep these Mahommedan sportsmen from firing at the flocks of young 
jungle-fowl when they come to the rice-plains at harvest-time, with a little 
preservation for more than one season, you may expect in the jungles that are 
fitted for it good junglefowl-shooting such as I have described. No Hindoo 



» 



JUNGLEFOWL-SHOOTING. 187 

will kill jungle-fowl ; it is against their caste to do so. It is only in December, 
January, and February that jungle-fowl congregate in the neighbourhood of 
the rice-stubbles ; after that time they retire to the forests to breed and feed 
on jungle products. Therefore I see no reason why, with a little harmless 
preserving, junglefowl-shooting, like snipe-shooting, may not be procurable 
for many generations to come. 

I have been told that tea-planting has ruined junglefowl-shooting, but I 
did not agree with the statement. There was no shooting of the kind worth 
the name in the localities chosen for tea-gardens, and none could have been 
damaged. In time, if tea-planting leads to rice-cultivation the sport should 
become better, not worse ; and as long as huge, I might say illimitable, areas 
of tree-forests exist on the borders of Eastern Bengal so long will the birds 
of those forests exist. The cultivation of corn and rice over a small propor- 
tion of those forests should not check bird-life in any way, rather it should 
encourage it. 

Many jungle-fowl are shot by stalking ; that is, they are seen when feeding 
some slight distance from the jungle, and the sportsman stalks up as near 
as he can, fires one shot at the birds on the ground and the other at 
the flock as it flies into the hill-jungle. Very good snipe-shooting is, as I 
have said, to be found in all the ground at the skirts of these jungles when 
it is spongy and fit for those small birds. It was my custom to survey the 
ground carefully with a binocular before beginning to shoot the snipe : if 
jungle-fowl were to be seen on the feed, I first schemed to get a shot at these, 
as there was no fear of disturbing snipe ; but the first shot at snipe would 
send every jungle-fowl into the jungle that happened to be within half a mile's 
distance. 

Another way of getting at these shy birds was to show yourself at a con- 
siderable distance ; the birds would then retreat to the jungle, but would 
only hide a few yards from the open ground. You should then mark the 
exact spot at which the flock entered the jungle, and stalking carefully and 
against wind, near to this throw a lighted cracker as far into the jungle 
behind the birds as possible. The sudden detonation of the cracker inside 
the jungle often has the effect of causing the birds to fly over the low trees 
ftirther into the forest, and with luck you may on such occasions knock over 
right and left shots. 

In beating for large game — ^tiger, deer, and bears — along the foot of the 
hills and other fitting places, jungle-fowl are often put up suddenly and offer 
shots like grouse; at least when I shot my first jungle-hen in this way I 
thought I had killed a grouse ; but usually the man in the howdah has a 
ball-gun in his hand, and also probably does not like to run the chance of 
depriving every one in the line of a shot at large game for the mere killing 
of a somewhat insignificant bird. 

All over Eastern Bengal you hear of expeditions for snipe-shooting, partridge- 



188 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

shootings wildfowl-sbooting, either with or without boats ; but, as a rule, you 
will not hear of junglefowl-shooting as a sport except in Tippera and Chitta- 
gODg. But not one who has ever enjoyed a whole winter day's sport, when 
birds were plentiful, and who has shot them from a howdah, when they have 
been made to fly by a well-conducted body of beaters and musicians, can 
deny that the sport equals or surpasses that of any other sport to be got 
with birds in the plains. Of the enchantments of pheasant-shooting in the 
lower ranges of the Himalayas I know nothing. 



Letter No. 47. 

Rhmoceros: two kinds. — ^Backergunge Soonderbunds. — Resolve to kill a Rhinoceros, and 
attempt to do so. Reach the ground in boats. Where to hit the animal. — ^The jungle. 
— We are taken to a Rhinoceros and left alone. We kill him with a single bdl, and 
fire at others. — Abundance of game in this country, but difficulty in the pursuit of it. 

I WISH I had had more experience in shooting the rhinoceros, for it is stiU 
to be got in Eastern Bengal by any one who has time and opportxmity, 
though only in the distant outskirts of the province or almost on the sea- 
shore. There are two kinds of rhinoceros in Bengal, R. indicus and R. 
aondaicus. The first is the larger and is found where Mymensing joins 
Assam, on the east of the Brahmapootra, and in Assam, and exists all along 
the base of the Himalayan slopes to the north of Bungpore and Purneah; 
but westward of Puueah it does not belong to the area of Eastern Bengal. 

When I was appointed to that inferior sporting station Backergunge I 
thought to myself that I might at any rate shoot a rhinoceros ; and I will tell 
you how the deed was accomplished. I knew the animal abounded in the 
Soonderbunds and was to be found all the way from the mouth of the Hoogly 
to the mouth of the Megna; this is the chief habitat of the lesser rhino- 
ceros. Occasionally one has been killed to the south of Tippera and in 
Chittagong. The one now in the London Zoological Gardens was captured 
when very young between Chittagong and Arracan, as it was crossing a muddy 
river. The whole establishment of Government khedda elephants happened 
to be on the march when news was brought that a little rhinoceros was in 
difficulties in some mud, and with the aid of these elephants the animal was 
taken alive and did well in captivity. 

I found that no rhinoceros has ever been known near headquarters at 
Backergunge, but that the Soonderbund folk and the English planters who 
had taken up Soonderbund lands reported that they were plentiful between 
their settlements and the shores of the Bay of Bengal, and I persuaded the 



GO AtTER RHINOCEROSES. 189 

judge to accompany me in a trip to the Bay. Budderuddeen was not with 
me in those days^ nor any shikarry of any value to compare to him ; so I got 
what information I could through the police^ who knew shikarries who used 
to procure venison from the more southern tracts of mangrove and soondry 
trees. At last I procured the services of two men who for good consideration 
agreed to take us up to some rhinoceroses, but strongly advised us to confine 
our attentions to spotted deer and jungle-fowl, as the rhinoceros was a fierce 
beast, not to be stopped by a bullet. 

The country for the sport was most peculiar, for the most part devoid of 
any water that was not salt ; the greater part of the soil was covered by the 
spring- tides : it was intersected by deep tidal nullahs with muddy banks. The 
good ground was at least as far off as boats with relays of rowers could reach 
in two nights' and a day^s row, not far from a village which had been esta- 
blished by a colony of Arracanese Mughs, known as *^ Isla Foolzurree/' 

We got a comfortable lai^e boat for ourselves and a commodious and f ast^ 
pulling boat for the attendants, to serve also as a cook*boat* We loaded both 
boats with large jars of good water for drinking and cooking purposes, and 
started down stream about 4.30 p.ic.^ rowing all night and taking advantage 
of tides under the direction of the shikarries who knew the streams. We 
soon left regular cultivation and well-populated regions and sailed and rowed 
all day down streams thickly fringed with trees. Here and there we came 
to marshy places covered with very high grass, and flags, and marsh-plants. 
In these tigers, buffaloes, and rhinoceros were to be found occasionally; 
crocodiles were very numerous, and lovely kingfishers of a kind I had never 
seen before were common. On the second day we got to the rhinoceros 
land. 

All the way down the judge and I had discussed as to where a rhinoceros 
should be hit. The judge had killed plenty near the Brahmapootra churs, 
but off elephants, and he argued for aiming at the shoulder and the neigh- 
bourhood of the heart. I declared that I would not fire if I could help it 
save just behind the ear. We both thought that the hide of a rhinoceros 
was proof against anything but a heavy bullet projected from a strong charge 
of powder. I have since come to the conclusion that, during life at least, 
the hide of a rhinoceros is not much more impenetrable than that of an old 
uma bufialo. My battery carried bullets fourteen to the pound. The judge 
had a heavy single rifle that carried a thing like a small cannon-ball, and 
required a coolie to carry till the time for use arrived. We had no luck the 
first afternoon, but saw spotted deer and plenty of tracks of both rhinoceros 
and tigers. I shot a large crow with ball after we got to the boats, and this 
rather raised our credit with the shikarries ; they were to scout for game 
early next morning and we were to await their reports. 

Next morning, after breakfast, one shikarry returned and said rhinoceros 
had been found, and that the other shikarry was on the watch. We had 



190 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

to go some distance in small canoes^ and then we landed and had to walk 
over a most extraordinary hard kind of ground. We marched under thick 
green foliage and among trunks of fair- sized trees; but from the rery 
wide-spreading roots of these trees there grew crops of stumps bigger than 
ordinary carrots^ most difficult to travel among, and very trying to the ankles. 
Here and there were dense thickets of grassy or shrubby underwood^ and 
large patches of that huge crackling fern called ^' dinkybon /' the soil was 
generally covered with an inch or two of mud^ and sometimes there were 
patches of short turf. OeneraUy you could see under the trees for some 
distance ; and if beaters could have been got^ deer might have been driven 
past gunners posted in ambuscade. 

After a very long trudge in this trying walking ground we came upon the 
second shikarry^ and a council of war was held. We were each to take only 
one attendant to carry a spare gun, and to go as silently as possible. I took 
my most sporting chuprassy and two smooth-bores^ one by Sam Smith and 
one by Joe Manton. The judge^ I think, had a double rifle and his man 
carried the heavy single rifle before mentioned. After a little the shikarry 
made signs to stop, and after a little reconnoitring he came back and pointed 
to a patch of dinkybon, and whispered that there was a rhinoceros in it, 
and that he would now make his salaam and climb up a tree, and leave the 
rest to us. On this all the other natives declared that they must go up trees, 
and they all salaamed and went up trees accordingly. 

The judge and I agreed to go, one on one side and one on the other of 
the patch, and to come together at the first call, for both of us knew that 
two weapons might be required ; I went to the left and the judge to the 
right. Peering about, presently I saw that something was moving in the 
dry fern-bush, which was about ten feet high, so I stood by the trunk of a 
tree about twenty-five yards from the fern, and put the Joe Manton gun 
against the tree on full-cock, and held the Sam Smith ready. Soon I saw 
a nose poked out, then the eye, and then the ear of a rhinoceros ; as soon 
as this came out I let fly, and you can scarcely conceive the row which 
followed — something between the roar of an elephant and the neigh of a 
horse, but far stronger. The smoke hung, and as it passed I saw a rhino- 
ceros standing, looking directly towards me. He stood a minute. I knew 
it was no use to fire at his lowered head ; there is no vulnerable place there, 
and the ball would have glanced. I called to the judge and said, " Here he 
is in front, looking at me V' but I did not move from the trunk of the tree, 
and I do not know if the rhinoceros distinctly made me out ; they are said to 
have bad sight. The animal turned round, and as he did so I shot him high 
in the shoulder and he bolted. I followed, but was instantly stopped, for 
there lay a rhinoceros stone dead. There had been two in the bush, and my 
ball behind the ear had killed the first. After the judge and I had made 
sure that the beast was really dead, we went after the other. The blood had 



ABUNDANCE OF GAME. ' 191 

gushed *oat on the trees and was frothy; we argued that the ball had pene- 
trated the lungs and would be mortal. After going a little way further we 
considered that we should certainly lose ourselves, so we stopped and retraced 
our steps to the dead rhinoceros^ and^ after much shouting, got our attendants 
to come to us. 

The next thing was to cut off the head and send it to the boats. This was 
no easy task. I had an ordinary sheathed hunting-knife, and the judge had 
a large pocket-knife ; but these were far too small for the purpose, and it 
took us nearly an hour cutting, hacking, and twisting before the head was 
got off. It was then tied with jungle creepers to a thick stick cu( for the 
purpose, and sent off to the boats on the shoulders of two men. 

We then spent some hours trying to get more rhinoceros. We saw, I 
think, six ; but they were on the move, and either smelt or heard us, and we 
never got near enough for deadly action. The judge, who was an excellent 
shot, fired and wounded some animals ; but no good was done. The walking 
was at times most difficult : the trees and foliage were characteristic of Soon- 
derbund jungle, such as are to be found nowhere else in India proper ; tigers 
and deer evidently abounded. It was impossible to stalk animals from a 
distance — first, because the walking was difficult; secondly, because of the fern 
which crackled as man or animal passed through it. I was transferred to 
Noakholly soon afterwards, and never revisited these parts : but the judge 
went again ; he could get no gentleman to accompany him, and had a few 
natives with him. He put up a tiger and severely wounded it ; in searching 
for this animal, a chuprassy came upon it and was killed. After this the 
judge went no more. These places are said to be most unhealthy for 
Europeans; fevers of the worst type are soon contracted, and the Soon- 
derbunds are considered deadly if any stay is made in them. 

But there is no doubt that between the northern parts of Backergunge and 
the shores of the Bay of Bengal there spreads a country full of large game, 
and where a sportsman, if he could retain his health and learn the localities 
and plan out the proper methods for shooting, might obtain grand sport. 
There are no elephants to be got ; there is no drinkable water; there are no 
villages were supplies can be got ; there are no roads nor bridges, and ever- 
recurring deep muddy tidal salt-streams. An enterprising sportsman, with a 
good steam-launch, might perhaps be able to work the country ; but daring 
my time I never heard that any Europeans had been able systematically or 
effectively to hunt up any portion of it. Every now and then some such 
short expedition as I made is undertaken, and occasionally some English 
gentleman connected with the ownership of Soonderbund grants kills a few 
tigers and rhinoceroses and deer ; but generally fever puts a stop to his ardour 
for sport. The forests are, however, gradually disappearing before culti- 
vation, in spite of the insalubrity of the soil, and villages are springing up, 
and steamers go through the deep channels, and native craft through the 
smaller streams. 



192 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

I never heard anything more of the rhinoceros I wounded or those fired 
into by the judge ; but immediately after I left the district the horn of a rhi* 
noceros was offered for sale in the bazaar of Burrisawel^ the head station of the 
district, and the judge had an opinion that this was the horn belonging to the 
second animal of the two to which we had been taken by the shikarries. 

This rhinoceros seems to be a harmless animal, feeding on branches of trees 
and the rank succulent herbage of muddy swamps. It never appears to visit 
cultivated places or to damage crops ; unless roused it has no murderous pro-^ 
pensity; it kills no other animal, and its size and thick hide protect it from 
the tiger. The unhealthy climate of the Soonderbunds has prolonged its 
existence to this date ; but ere long, as these salt and tidal lands are brought 
under rice- and jute-cultivation, the animal will disappear. In the struggle 
for existence it will not be able to fight the battle by adapting itself to change 
even to the extent that tigers and hogs seem to do; these shift their 
quarters, and constantly appear in new localities. 



Letter No. 48. 

Hhinoceros uu^cwi the jungles in which it is found near Assam. I never shot one.. 
Elephants much afraid of thenL — Bears. — ^A Badger. — ^Bears not numerous now in 
Bengal. Large skulL The cries of the wounded. Courage. — Kill- three Bears. — Often 
shot on foot in other parts of India, hut the jungles of Eastern Bengal not open enough 
for that sport. Occasionally speared from horseback. — ^Bears tenacious of life. Vezy 
numerous in Guttack. Destructive to sugar-canes. Feast on hees and honey. 

The last letter referred to Rhinoceros sondaicus; but the Rhinoceros indicus, 
generally referred to as the rhinoceros of Bengal sportsmen^ is a different and 
a larger animal^ inhabiting extensive swamps and marshes^ where the grass is 
the tallest and densest to be found, and where the jungle called in Mymensing 
^' taradham '^ occupies large spaces of soft muddy soil, which I should think 
would only suit heavy animals in the dry season. In these thick grass- 
jungles no man on foot can make his way : he must either follow paths made 
by elephants, buffaloes, and rhinoceros, or cut his way through them, or go 
on elephants; and it is on elephants alone that the sport of rhinoceros- 
shooting has been carried on in the regions of the Brahmapootra churs and 
in the valleys of Assam, and in the Terai at the base of the Himalayas, 
about Rungpore and Fumeah. 

I went after a rhinoceros at times ; but neither in the neighbourhood of the 
Brahmapootra nor in the north of Pumeah did I ever see one. If you can 
accompany any sportsman who is acquainted with good rhinoceros-ground, 
an^ have leisure and desire to kill these animals, you will have better luck. 



RmNOOEKOS AND B£AllS. Id3 

I neither knew the country nor Europeans nor natives in it, and contented 
myself with hog-hunting and tiger-shooting ; I cannot therefore relate tales 
of rhinoceros-slaughter in which I took part. 

But numbers of other sportsmen and friends killed them yearly, and their 
skulls were to be seen in the verandahs of many houses in Mymensing and 
Dinagepore and Bungpore. From looking at these it was at once seen that 
the brain took up only a small space in the huge bony head, and that bullets 
in the head need not necessarily prove mortal. Well-directed shots, how- 
ever, seemed easily to have pierced to the brain ; and from all I could learn 
the chief thing in rhinoceros-shooting was to manage to get as close to 
the animal as possible, and the only difficulty in doing this was the great 
fear elephants had of approaching a rhinoceros at all. Sometimes these 
animals are pugnacious, and when they charge the line of elephants the latter 
animal, as a rule, takes to flight and cannot be brought to face the rhinoceros 
at all. I have heard stories and seen pictures of elephants having been 
knocked over by rhinoceroses ; still I never heard of any serious accident that 
had occurred. An elephant that will fSnce a fighting rhinoceros is a most valuable 
animal. Much depends on the mahout ; but elephants are curiously uncertain 
in temper and courage. My best elephant had a great reputation for good 
behaviour with rhinoceroses, and I killed scores of tigers from, her back ; 
nevertheless, even with Sowdaugor, the pluckiest mahout I ever had, she 
ran away — ^positively declined to be brought close up to a plucky rat : the 
courageous little animal stuck out its fur, squeaked, and jumped towards the 
pouderous elephant, which tucked up its trunk, screamed, backed away, and 
could not be brought forwai*d, though I tried for quite a quarter of an hour 
to force the elephant to dose quarters. 

There was another animal belonging to the large game of Eastern Bengal 
of which I killed comparatively few. This was the bear. Bears are not 
found now in any of the districts of Eastern Bengal but Dacca, Mymensing, 
Rungpore, and Pumeah; I never got true reports of any in Tippera or 
Chittagong, and there are none between these districts and the Hoogly. 

One morning, when I was at Comilla, in Tippera, news was brought of a 
bear which had been marked into a patch of low grass. I got some elephants 
and hastened to the spot, as I had never then met with a bear. The place 
seemed most unlikely as a retreat for so large an animal. However, I beat it 
up and turned out and killed a fine badger — ^an animal differing very little in 
appearance from an English badger. This was the nearest approach to a bear 
I ever met south of Dacca, and the only badger I ever knew killed in Bengal; 
probably badgers are not unprocurable, but they are nocturnal in their habits 
and not sought as game. 

Bears at one time were numerous in the Bhowal forest in Dacca ; but their 
numbers were very consid erably reduced by the time I became acquainted 
with those jungles. I took some trouble about them at first; but they 

o 



104 SPORT m EASTERN BENGAL. 

puzzled Budderuddeen. He never could harbour one^ or bring me really 
good reports about them. As a rule they kill neither human beings nor 
cattle^ and therefore^ even if seen, they were not reported to the Dacca 
sportsmen. There were no dead carcases to keep them restricted to any 
particular patches of jungle; they would wander about tree-jungles and 
devour jungle-fruits and honey, chiefly in hard ground, where their footmarks^ 
which are unmistakable, left very poor tracks. Qenerally^ when I tried to 
find them according to the reports of villagers I was disappointed ; and all 
the bears I shot were put up unexpectedly when on the look-out for other 
game. 

But still I killed plenty of bears: some within twenty miles of Dacca; 
some all along the banks of the Bunsee river ; many in the rosebush-jungles 
of Mymensing; and some on the hills of Lower Assam, not far firom 
the Brahmapootra. I have a skull beside me now; it is nearly fifteen 
inches long. Few tiger-skulls are as long as this. The lower jaw is 
deep; it is underhung, and the teeth weak as compared with a tiger's. 
It is more of a vegetable-feeding animal, though carnivorous to some extent 
also. 

This large skull belonged to a Dacca bear. I was after a tiger, and had 
some native sportsmen out with me, friends of a large landed proprietor^ who 
was a Brahmin and of a sporting turn of mind. I had beaten up a great 
number of detached jungles, and had sent the line forward towards another 
beat, when I heard loud shouting and some shots, and hurried forward only just 
in time to get a very long shot at a huge black bear rolling fast across a rice- 
stubble field ; without stopping the elephant to take careful aim, I fired well 
ahead, and luckily plugged the bear in the shoulder with a heavy Daw-Jacob 
bullet, and he fell, uttering most wretched and human-like groans. These 
lamentations make one feel like a murderer, and are a drawback to bear- 
shooting. The termination of many a keenly-followed chase is often 
mournful 1 What can be more cruel than the end of a stag-hunt with the 
Devon and Somerset stag-hounds in Badgeworthy Water, after a two-hours' 
run? The poor beast is hunted up and down, backwards and forwards, half- 
drowning in the stream, with hounds tearing at him and merely torturing 
him, till after long delay the huntsman gets the knife to his throat. The 
hog-deer^ when chased on horseback, cries like a child or a hare before the 
spear kills him ; and bears, both young and old, shock you and make you feel 
ashamed almost as they expire. But the gallant boar fights till the last and 
never utters a squeak. 

Bears are very plucky too, and will attack any manor thing when angered. 
Several times in the Mymensing rosebush-jungles I have at first sight mis- 
taken them for boars. Once I never knew my mistake till the bear had 
seized the elephant's trunk with both paws ; and^ strange to say, that bear 
escaped. There were two^ and the bushes were very thick, and the other 



BEABS. 196 

animal was the most conspicuous and attracted attention with a result fatal 
to himself; whilst firing at the second bear the first somehow escaped. 

Another time^ in the neighbourhood of the Bunsee^ some of the party had 
roused a tiger^ and we were in hot pursuit^ endeavouring to preyent the animal 
from reaching thick tree-jungle and forest^ where it would most likely find 
security^ when I suddenly turned up three bears. Without stopping I fired 
four shots : one bear fell and another was hard hit ; but I cheered on the 
line after the tiger and would not allow any stoppage. It was of no avails 
the tiger escaped; indeed I had never seen him. We at length returned 
to the bears : one was dead^ the second was crying most mournfully in a bush 
and was easily disposed of ^ the third was fresh-found not far off and also 
added to the bag. 

There is no reason why bears should not be shot on foot^ and they are so 
shot in most parts of India; but in Eastern Bengal the jungles are too dense^ 
high^ and thorny for beaters^ and bears are for the most part killed from 
elephants. They have been speared occasionaUy in the Behar provinces^ and^ 
I believe^ also in Cuttack. I never was present on any of these occasions^ 
and in the zillahs of Eastern Bengal bears cannot be induced to face open 
country^ and there is no low bush-jungle through which a man could ride a 
bear as he would a hog^ or undoubtedly the feat would have been often 
accomplished. 

I never had the luck to find a bear up a tree, and the tales of their climbing 
for honey and fruit have reached me only through books. Two Mymensing 
sportsmen who killed numbers of bears in their day told me that no instance 
of shooting bears in trees had occurred to them, and I never heard that a 
bear, however hotly pursued, ever took to climbing a tree to escape. 

Bears are very tenacious of life : their thick fur is deceptive, and many a 
bullet hits without mortally wounding a bear. When wounded he is exceed- 
ingly savage, notwithstanding his cries, and any beater or native who comes 
in his way may be terribly wounded or scalped, or even killed. Occasionally 
I have known of bears that had killed more than one villager. Although 
a reward is given by Government for the destruction of a bear, as in the case 
of tigers and leopards, very few skins are brought to the collectorates ; the 
animal is clearly decreasing in Eastern Bengal. If only apart of what I was 
told in Cuttack was true, they must be very numerous in that province. One 
sportsman told me that he had been at the death of nine in one forenoon, 
and his description of the sport among the rocks and caves was most stirring. 
In this sport it is as well for two or more sportsmen to keep dose together, 
for if the two barrels are discharged and the bear only wounded he may 
prove a most ugly customer. 

Bears, as well as hogs and even jackals, are destructive to sugar-cane crops, 
and do much damage where cane is cultivated near hills and forests. I have 
heard complaints, and I have known of bears having been found and killed 

o2 



196 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

from sugar-cane khets ; but I neyer met with one myself in the sugar-crops 
either in Dacca or Mymensing. There are no mowah-trees in the east ; these 
are the favourite resorts for bears to the westward ; but all over Eastern 
Bengal jungles there is an abundance of sour fruit and berry, and white- 
ant hills are much too common. Bees and honey they feast on also^ eating 
the sweet and the comb and the maggot with perfect impartiality. 



Lbtteb No. 49. 

Leopards: abundant. Only one kind, often called Panther, referred to in these letters. 
Very numerous in some places. — The Frenchman and his dog in Tippera. — Generally 
dogs useless. — A Leopard carries off a dog from my tent door. — ^The PheaL — ^Leopard- 
shooting on foot. — ^Take a deal of killing : a £urly placed shot not immediately &taL 

If I failed to shoot many rhinoceroses and bears^ I had no difficulty in 
shooting any number of leopards. I have shot them almost in all districts 
and in the greatest variety of places. I have shot them in houses and in 
vultures^ nests, on branches of trees and in villages, in gardens and in tree- 
jungles^ on islands and on the mainland^ in the plains and in the hills^ close 
to headquarter stations and in remote^ distant^ desolate places^ in dry ground 
and in marsh. I have found them of various sizes and have taken their cubs ; 
I have known fierce and also sneakish leopards ; I have shot them on foot 
and on elephants^ and have known them to be speared off horseback when 
found by hog-hunting parties ; I have had them beaten out of jungles by 
men^ and have hunted them with dogs ; and yet I never made them the 
object of systematic steady pursuit or spent much money in killing them^ 
merely shooting them as I came across them, or when news that they had 
been harboured in likely places came to my knowledge. 

They are often caught alive in traps. A very splendid black leopard was 
trapped the very first day I visited the city of Dacca^ and exhibited in his 
cage. They are constantly caught in nets in Tippera and Sylhet by villagers 
when killing hogs; they are poisoned by baits and shot with poisoned 
arrows. Cultivation has not driven them from the country ; deserted gardens 
and what are well known as village-jungles are their most favourite haunts. 
They prey to a certain extent on deer^ jackals^ and wild animals; but they 
also eat dead carcases and are most partial to village dogs^ and prowl about 
villages^ seize persons asleep in their houses^ and destroy numbers of children 
and even grown-up people annually. Sheep and goats can only be preserved 



THE FRENCHMAN AND HIS DOG. 107 

from them by being shut up at night. In fact^ with the exception of snakes^ 
they are more destractive than any wild creature in Eastern Bengal. 

My remarks apply to one kind of leopard only : it is often called panther. 
Except in size I recognize no difference of importance among the leopards I 
was in the habit of examining for more than twenty years. 

I have killed beautiful cats of different kinds^ generally in trees. The 
chaus^ or wild cat of the grassy jungles^ is yery common^ and occasionally I 
have met in swampy nullahs Felts celidogaster or vivenrinay a very fierce and 
large fishing-cat ; but none of them approach leopards in size^ nor can any of 
them be confounded with the ordinary leopard. 

I am inclined to think that leopards are more numerous and common than 
is generally supposed. Those persons of my acquaintance who have syste- 
matically and keenly worked the pursuit of leopards have found them more 
numerous than they expected; and I myself, when hunting jackals with 
English fox-hounds, which I did on and off for six years, was astonished at the 
number of leopards I came across. From the window of my room at Mymen- 
sing looking across the river I could see three places within an hour's walk 
where leopards lived. I often put them up either hunting jackal or shooting, 
or when hog-hunting. When strangers came to see me and accompanied us 
on the elephants either for hog-hunting or coursing, I could almost always 
procure them a shot at a leopard. 

At the eastern extremity of Tippera, and very close to the NoakhoUy 
boundary, there lived at one time a young man of French extraction who was 
in charge of some estates, and who was always leopard-shooting and -killed 
great numbers. When, as magistrate, I was encamped in that neighbourhood 
I went out with this gentleman. His method of shooting was simple : he 
had a shikarry constantly scouting about and specially engaged in seeking for 
footmarks in soft ground ; the Frenchman, who had generally an elephant or 
two under his orders, walked about with a nondescript sort of dog, half 
pariah and half spaniel, or some such mongrel. When this dog smelt a 
leopard (and, I presume, leopards have an extremely powerful odour about 
them) he would cock his ears and point out from a respectful distance where 
the leopard lay. If the leopard was on the move the dog would keep moving 
and giving signs, but without barking or any show of excitement. A more 
stupid-looking, sluggish dog I never saw ; but he was invaluable in his way. 
The Frenchman kept on peeping and peering about, wholly regardless of 
anything the leopard might do in the way of attack, till he could sight the 
animal. He then deliberately killed him almost to a certainty with a single 
shot. I saw him shoot a leopard this way, silently accompanying him with a 
gun in my hand. Occasionally he would get on an elephant ; but this was 
merely to cause the leopard to move when supposed to be in such dense jungle 
that there could be no other way of getting sight of him. 
Of course I never could follow this plan, for I never could procure such a 



198 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

dog. 1 have hunted leopards with dogs and been at aeveral such hunts with 
other people's dogs. As a rule our dogs would either do nothing or were too 
plucky. If they went in at the leopard he invariably killed them. I bought 
a well-known^ roughs fierce bull-terrier^ which belonged to an officer who died 
of cholera at Dacca^ and was sold as part of his estate. The dog was sent to 
me at Tippera and killed immediately by the first leopard I took him to. 
Leopards feed greatly on dogs^ and are not much afraid of them. 

The leopord is sneakish in his habits and is hardly ever seen in the day time, 
and has great powers of hiding himself from observation. But he is bold at 
night, and shows no great timidity in coming close to fires where men are on 
the move. I was encamped on the bank of the magnificent tank of Jugger- 
nathdiggy, in Tippera, for junglefowl-shooting, and after the day's sport 
was dining in my tent by candle-light ; at a little distance was another tent 
used for cooking and for the attendants. Camp fires were burning and 
several men were moving about in the dark at about 8 p.m. A pariah dog 
came to pick up any scraps he might get from the dinner as the plates were 
being carried away. A leopard suddenly pounced on the dog and took him 
clean ofi^ into some thorny jungle about twenty yards firom my tent. I took 
a gun which was ready loaded and lanterns and went to the bushes, and we 
could hear the leopard growling and tearing at the dog ; but it was dark and 
I could not fire. We heard no more of the leopard during the night, and 
next morning we found the remains of the dog. The jungle on the banks of 
that tank was extensive and thorny, and it would have taken a whole day to 
beat it. I had few elephants with me, and, besides, I was not going to give 
up a good day's junglefowl-shooting for the uncertain chance of getting a 
leopard. 

Though the leopard was no more heard, the jackals in the neighbourhood 
were noisy for a long time. The instant the dog was seized the jackals 
seemed to know it and set up the cry known as the " pheal.'^ It was very dark, 
but it seemed to me that all the jackals in the neighbourhood were telling 
each other that a leopard was committing murder. This peculiar cry in no 
way resembles the usual well-known howl which all jackals make at times 
every night and nioming. I may as well remark that jackals are said to be 
exceedingly scarce as you go south from Tippera and Chittagong. In 
Arracan they are comparatively scarce, but seem to have increased in numbers 
of late years. Jackals appear to follow cultivation and the introduction of 
villages into hitherto unpopulated districts. 

I shot the greatest number of leopards I killed on foot. I used to flatter 
myself that I could put a ball pretty nearly exactly where I liked into a 
leopard at from twenty-five to forty yards distance, and for a long time it 
seemed quite easy and safe to act on this presumption. I had two warnings 
which ought to have made me more careful. I was shooting among patches 
of jungle separated from each other by small spaces where rice had been 



/ 



LBOPARTXS HARD TO KILL. 199 

grown and got a fair shot at a large leopard crossing from one patch to another. 
This time^ by-the-bye^ I was in the howdah. I was uncertain as to the effect 
of the shot ; I ought to have hit^ and did not think that I had missed. How- 
ever^ the animal did not fall^ but bounded into the next patch of jungle; 
this I beat most carefully twioe^ and found no trace of the leopard. I got 
off the elephant^ intending to ride home; but first I examined the place where 
I shot ; there I picked up a piece of bone about the size of a shilling, evi- 
dently knocked out of the leopard's rib by the bullet. On this I put Budde- 
ruddeen on the trail to see as far as possible where the leopard had entered 
and where he had left the patch of jungle. His footmarks showed where he 
had entered, and there within five yards, or probably one more bound, 
he was lying dead. Clearly a well-placed shot not far from the heart had 
failed to stop him, and in spite of it he had got into the jungle. During this 
short time a colony of black stinging-ants had discoyered the body ; it was 
covered with them, and they bit most venomously when we handled the dead 
ledpard to put him on the elephant. 

Another time I had a leopard beaten out towards me ; thinking he would 
take a certain line I took up a position close to a tree. The leopard 
came fast and straight towards me. I do not think he meant to charge 
absolutely ; but still he came directly at me. I fired and made no impres- 
sion ; I stepped back, and as the animal passed at about twelve yards distance 
or less I put a ball into his neck, which broke the spine and killed him. On 
examination it appeared that the ball had cut the skin of the chin and also 
had made a cut along the brisket ; in fact, the ball was about an inch too 
low — a little higher and it would have gone through the head. This showed 
the difference which a very small distance in the place where a bullet strikes 
might make. The shot would in no way hare stopped the animal had he 
really meant to attack me. But in spite of these two warnings I continued 
to haye leopards beaten out by elephants to the spots where I elected to wait 
for them on foot. 



Letter No. 50. 

A Leopard gets hold of me and punishes me severely. — ^Three Leopards at once. — Effects of 
my mauling. — Leopards on trees : in huts. Shot by poisoned arrows. Vary greatly in 
size without decided specific difference. Constantly found when beating for other game. 
Afford only inferior sport 

Soon after this I came to grief One morning it was reported that two 
leopards were fighting in some jungle not yery far from a hath^ or village 



200 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

market^ about an hour's distance from my house. My elephants were handy, 
and the assistant magistrate started off with me at once. The jungle consisted 
of thorny bushes with very thick undergrowth. The assistant looked after the 
elephants and the beating, and I dodged about outside and in the open places 
where I could get good chances. We stirred up the leopards at once and 
soon killed, or thought we killed, a fine male. He was taken off to the 
market-place. The female sneaked about cleverly in the underwood ; we had 
several shots at her, and hit her six or seven times ; but she had still plenty 
of vitality. I was watching for her in one direction, according to signs from 
the elephants, when suddenly I saw a great red thing in the air ; it struck 
me with tremendous force on the back and left shoulder and hurled me to 
the ground with extreme violence. This was the leopard, whose claws pierced 
into my flesh. She sat on me for an instant, looked into my face with her 
great green eyes ; I felt her warm breath. She seized me by the left arm, 
dragged me into a bush, gave me a most painful shake, and then luckily left 
me. Budderuddeen and some natives who were close gave a shout ; but I 
got up, not feeling much hurt, with my white clothing all red with blood ; 
but it was the leopard's blood, not my own. The assistant came down and 
said my arm was not broken, and I got into the howdah and went on with 
the sport. 

We soon killed the female leopard from the elephants ; but there was a 
third leopard, and it was when looking for this one that the female managed 
to leap on me without my perceiving her attack. This, the third and largest 
of the three leopards, gave little trouble. He was killed and padded, and we 
went to put the first leopard on the elephants ; but when we got to the hath 
lo and behold he was not dead, but, with a broken spine, was sitting on his 
haunches growling at the assembled villagers ! We then knocked him on the 
head with some bamboo poles, and the three leopards were placed on three 
elephants and marched in procession through the principal bazaar to my 
house to be skinned. I believe on this occasion that the two leopards had 
been fighting for the good graces of the female. 

I thought nothing of the wounds ; the doctor dressed them. But in a day 
or two the arm got very bad, and it became inflamed, swelled up to a great 
extent, and was most offensive. The doctor said matter had formed and 
must be released : I had seen the said doctor operate a few days before for a 
somewhat similar thing on a prisoner in the jail hospital ; I had not been 
struck with his dexterity and did not much like the prospect. It is not 
pleasant to be lying helpless and in pain in one room and to hear your 
assistant and an inexperienced surgeon sharpening an instrument to operate 
on you with in the next, and asking each other if it is sharp enough. How- 
ever, they came in, and the assistant held my arm, and the doctor plunged 
the instrument in to a great depth, but did not find the '^ occult matter, a 



LEOPABDS m TREES AND VILIAGES. 201 

difficult thing to find always in deep-seated wounds/' After this the doctor 
thought the case too serious for himself^ and he packed me off to Calcutta in 
a boat. The Calcutta doctors pulled me through without the loss of my 
arm. I merely lost a great deal of pay on account of absence from office ; 
this^ added to the pain and sufferings was severe. 

I do not think harm would have happened ii I had kaown that there were 
two animals still in the jungle ; probably the third leopard was just in firont 
of me when the second attacked me. I consider that exposure to a leopard 
on foot, with due precaution and a proper weapon^ is only a fair sporting 
risk^ and accidents must happen occasionally. It is quite different with a 
tiger^ and I should never have so exposed myself to one ; it would have been 
certain death had I done so. 

Leopards often resort to trees. Once a party of us was taken to an old 
tree on which vultures had nested for many a year, and we were assured that 
a leopard lived in the huge fagot-looking pile. We were on elephants. 
Something apparently was in the nest : one of the party fired into it, and 
immediately a leopard half ran and half fell down the tree ; as soon as he 
reached the ground he received a volley and was finished off. I have shot 
leopards not only on the thick arms or branches of trees, but lying full length 
on the thick leafy twigs. On such occasions you walk close up and fire into 
your favourite mortal spot ; the blood comes gushing out, and with a quiver 
the beast falls with a thump on to the ground. 

I have shot a leopard through a windows : he had gone into a house and 
was shut in. I was sent for, and he was shown to me crouching in a comer. 
I have shot them also in " pan barees,*' those carefully covered-in gardens 
where the climbing plant in the leaf of which betel-nut is wrapped for chewing 
grows ; these neatly-cultivated shady places are said to be favourite spots 
for a leopard to remain in during the glare of the day. In fact I have found 
more leopards in and about villages than in wild and distant jungle ; they are 
seldom found in those wet marshy nullahs of which hogs and tigers are so 
fond. I do not recollect ever having seen a leopard take water and swim. 
Tigers are continually crossing deep streams and take long swims. As a 
rule, tigers require water close to their haunts, and to hogs soft marshy ground 
is almost essential ; I do not know how they manage in dry rocky ground, 
but in Bengal I never found them in such. 

Twice I came on dead leopards ; these had been recently wounded by 
poisoned arrows and had wandered a certain distance and died. In both 
cases death had just taken place sufficiently long before I found them to spoil 
the skins. The hair came off ; so the heads were cut off and the bodies left to 
the vultures. 

In beating for leopards with elephants the beast shows little fight, and 
sneaks under the bushes and hides in any trench or hole ; he thus gives a 



902 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

deal of trouble^ seldom taking to the open, and being genially killed witbin 
a few feet of tbe elephant. Many are shot by natives from '^ machans^'^ or 
platforms. I never eared for that sport. 

Leopards vary exceedingly in size^ indeed nnaccountably, and some think 
that there are two distinct kinds which show no absolute difference but in 
size. I recorded no measurements of leopards at the time they were killed, 
and therefore cannot give exact details, as I have done with reference to tigers 
and hogs. Blyth, who wrote in the ' Indian Sporting Magazine ' on the 
Felidse, apparently knew nothing personally of leopard-shooting ; he com- 
plained of the want of skins, and the only measurements he gives relate to 
small leopards killed apparently in the Madras Presidency. Jerdon, in his 
' Mammals of India/ gives a meagre account of the leopard, which he calls 
the *' Pard/' a name I never knew used : his account chiefly is an extract 
from Blyth's. Writing from memory alone, I should say that I killed many 
large leopards between eight and nine feet long, taking the total length of the 
unskinned body from snout to the end of the tail. The tails of leopards are 
long, and much longer proportionately than those of tigers. The size of the 
ordinary frdl-grown leopards I met. with was about that of an English pointer 
dog ; but some were nearly twice as large and twice as heavy — able to kill 
the common sized village cow ; and others, though smaller, were quite full- 
grown. I could distinguish no good specific difference between these large 
and small varieties, either in shape of skull or teeth, or mode of coloration or 
arrangement of spots. 

Little information can be gathered from native names. Leopards are 
generally called tigers when talked of at first. The term " Sheer,'' which means 
lion, is often applied to the tiger; ''Sheeal'' (corrupted into "Heear*), ''Bagh,'' 
^' Kendwah,'* are names applied to both tigers and leopards; and^'Cheeta," or 
" Cheeta-bagh,'' is used for the hunting-leopard as well as for Felts pardus. 

At Mymensing we had a pack of fox-hounds for hunting jackals. I carried 
the horn and was huntsman. We constantly came upon leopards with the 
hounds both in the thatching-grass khets and in the jhow or tamarisk-jungles. 
Once I almost stepped upon a very large leopard with my horse ; he lay 
quite still, crouching and looking into my face. I immediately called away 
the hounds ; but he was roused, bounded up, and struck one hound on the 
ear, and then with a succession of grand leaps made his way into the tree and 
village jungle which was close. The hound, though knocked over and 
bleeding, was not much the worse. 

At times I came on very young t^ubs with the hounds ; immediately I took 
the hounds away, fearing that the female leopard might kill or injure some of 
them. I have known cubs of both tigers and leopards taken and brought up 
as tame ; but they are treacherous, dangerous pets, and before long have 
either to be destroyed or confined in cages. A tiger cub brought up by a 
zemindar near Dacca h ad its claws and large teeth extracted or cut down 



LEOPARDS AND DEER. 203 

under chloroform^ and was kept strongly chained ; bnt even then it managed 
to do a deal of mischief. 

The Oovemment reward for killing a leopard in Bengal is half that given 
for a tiger. A great many skins are brought to the coUectorates^ the animals 
having been killed by shikarries^ mostly with poisoned arrows, and some from 
machans. But leopard-skins are worth more now than the amount of reward, 
which was 2 rs. 8 annas ; so many are carefully prepared for sale. 

Leopards have been often ridden and killed with hog-spears when met with 
out hog-hunting and turned out into ground fit for riding. I never speared 
one myself nor saw one speared, nor, indeed, did I ever see a leopard take 
across good riding-ground. Near Dacca, close to Neverblank, we once turned 
a fine tiger out of some bushes ; but we let him go, it would have been 
mad folly to have attempted to spear him. But very soon after I left India 
my friend Lyall and a party near the same place turned a leopard* into the 
open, rode and speared him. One of the party was an excellent draughtsman ; 
he drew the scene, it was photographed, and I give a picture from the photo. 
I consider this a very valuable picture, for I have never seen an ordinary 
Bengal pig-sticking scene so well depicted. The style of horse and the 
costume as worn in the ^' mofassil '^ are strictly true ; the spears are correctly 
drawn, and the ground exactly shows easy riding-ground near Dacca. I have 
heard of leopards being speared in the Rungpore and other districts. 

I much doubt if you will ever regard leopard-shooting as a distinct sport 
worthy of special pursuit : probably you will meet with the animal often in 
the course of your other shooting and hunting opportunities, and every now 
and then you will be told of a fresh kill, probably attributed to a tiger, and 
in this way may bag a number of these animals. I shall now take leave of 
the Felidae as regards these letters, and write to you in my next about deer. 



Letter No. 51. 

Deer. Difierent kinds to be met with. — Hog-Deer. At times easy to shoot, at times diffi- 
cult Often speared from horseback when hogs are scarce and ground suitable. — Fatal 
accident deer-shooting in rosebush-jungle in Mymensing. — Great numbers of Deer. — A 
vicious male Elephant — Hog-Deer might be coursed with greyhounds. — The Sambhur 
Deer. Stalking unknown in Bengal. Generally killed at close quarters. He allows a 
near approach. Offcen carries off a number of bullets. Horns not so large as to the 
westward. 

If you have any shooting in the jungles of Eastern Bengal you must come 
across deer, and probably you will meet with five kinds : — 

1. The sambhur [Rusa aristotelis), called in various places sambhur, burra 
singha, or gous. 



204 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

2. The hog-deer {Axis porcinus) , or para. 

3. The spotted deer {Aais maculaius), or cheetul. 

4. The swamp-deer {Rucervtu Duvaucellii), or barah singha (with twelve 
points). 

5. The barking-deer {Cenmlus aureus), called in some parts the jungle- 
sheep^ or kakur. Besides these in Cut tack I shot the mouse-deer {Memimna 
indica), and in Pumeah I met with antelopes {Antilape bezoarctica), and in 
Cuttack I shot the four-homed antelope. 

The deer most common in the districts bordering the Ganges, Brahma- 
pootra, and Magna, and found in almost all grassy jungles in Bengal, is the 
hog-deer. As soon as ever I joined my first appointment away from Calcutta 
I shot hog-deer, before ever my traps had reached the station. The judge 
of Rajshahye sent me out at once on his elephants and lent me three good 
guns. I never shot better in my life than with these guns, seeing that in 
the first four shots (the first I ever took firom an elephant, and firing with 
ball) I killed two bucks and a doe, the latter at a long distance. It was a 
long time before I ever shot so many deer again in so few shots, possibly I 
never did so. As for shooting hog-deer in long grass, when they will not 
face the open, it is most difficult shooting, and I believe I have missed a dozen 
shots running, and I have met men who have shot all the season and never 
bagged a hog-deer in grass. If you are standing on the ground and obtain 
a clear shot at a hog-deer at about fifty yards you may kill every shot ; as 
they bolt out of the grass and go a fast burst across short openings of clear 
ground, if you are on an elephant it is easy to miss them. 

In some places they are very numerous : you will generally find them in 
the same sort of jungle as you woiild beat for hogs, and the two animals are 
often found together. Indeed, wlien hogs are scarce and the ground fit, it 
is very common to ride and spear hog-deer. They are harder to ride down 
than hogs : when tired out and about to be speared they scream out in the 
most mournful lamentable way, worse* than a hare before a dog and not un- 
like a child crying; this makes deer-spearing appear very cruel, and men 
seldom persevere in it. 

It makes a difference if the ground on which hog-deer are ridden is hard 
or soft, and whether the deer has been feeding on hard com or green soft 
herbage. At Rajshahye I never speared a deer, though I rode my very 
hardest ; we even had relays, and stationed riders at places to take up the 
running, and failed even then ; but I certainly very nearly speared one once — 
in fact I missed my stroke. When, however, I tried to ride a fine buck at 
Doudcandee, in Tippera, where the rice-stubbles were soft and deep, I 
doubled into him in comparatively no time, and soon put a spear through 
him. Subsequently I speared hog-deer often in Noakholly, Tippera, and 
Dacca, but only when hogs were scarce, as they were considered the only 
fit animals to ride when they could be found. 



FATAL ACCIDENT WHILE DEER-SHGOTING. 205 

Hog-deer like benna-grass and thatching-grass growing thickly^ with water 
and swamp on the one side and crops of mustard^ oil, rice^ &c. on the other — 
just the very places where hogs and partridges^ hares and lloriken are to be 
found. They are also extremely partial to rosebush-jungle; and in the 
latter I have seen them more numerous than in any other jungle. I once 
saw a fatal accident when shooting in rosebush-jungle in Mymensing. 

The party consisted of the collector, the magistrate, a planter, and myself. 
We had plenty of elephants. The rose-bushes were most abundantly stocked 
with game ; besides the very great likelihood of a tiger (for we often met 
with them at Toldoodung) and of swamp-deer, we found hog-deer in scores, 
plenty of black partridges, a good sprinkling of khyah partridges (called here 
''chickore''), and numbers of hares. The collector was a good shot^ the 
planter a poor shot, and the magistrate had never shot a deer. 

There was a great amount of blazing ; it was not very easy to hit the deer 
as glimpses of them appeared among the thick roses. The collector and 
I agreed to shoot only bucks. After padding a few, the magistrate said if 
he and the planter could go by themselTes they might kill a deer or two, so 
they left us and went a little beat of their own. In less than half an 
hour we heard a tremendous outcry and saw that we were signalled to 
assist, and thinking that our friends had found a tiger and killed him^ we 
hastened up. 

Each of the party had brought elephants, and the young magistrate had 
among those he had got hold of obtained a young male that was half crazy and 
unmanageable and bad tempered ; and on this he had put a sort of shikarry who 
had attached himself to the magistrate. This man too was half-witted. Be- 
tween them they managed to kill a hog-deer, and great was the rejoicing 
thereat. The bad elephant was taken up to the dead deer, and the half-witted 
shikarry slipped down over the elephant's tail to cut the deer's throat, when 
the huge beast at once sat down on him, and when he got up he kicked the man 
about with his feet. The man was not dead when we reached him ; we put him 
on a guddy and took him to the nearest village and he very soon died ; fourteen 
of his ribs were broken, and his thigh-bone and his jaw. It was a terrible smash. 
In addition to the deer that caused this disaster, the collector and I bagged 
sixteen male hog-deer. It was seldom I tried to make a bag of hog-deer ; 
two or three nice ones sufBce for any party. As a rule, when other game is 
expected, hog-deer are allowed to pass unharmed. 

It was at this very place, Toldoodung, in the roses, that the same planter 
put up a fine tiger, and instead of at once hastening to the nurcot, a sort of 
very strong-stemmed tall grass which grows only in morass, where neither 
man nor elephant can penetrate, and which was the only safe place the tiger 
could retreat to, the planter came at once to me at the other side of the 
jungle; I hastened round and by great exertion just saw the tiger disappear 
into the nurcot, firom which he might so easily have been cut off or inter- 



206 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

cepted. Here too the wildfowl-shooting was excellent. I was told it was 
a great place for bears ; but I found none. There were plenty of fine boars, 
but the rosebush-jungles were so extensive that the causing clever old-stagers 
to take to the open would have demanded very skilful arrangements. All 
this jungle went under water in the rains^ and every quadruped must have 
left Toldoodung plain for the forest and hills. 

I never actually coursed hog-deer with greyhounds ; it has been done, and I 
should think the sport was good. I got a pair of greyhounds for the purpose at 
Noakholly, where deer were not generally plentiful ; but the first day I went 
out the two dogs gave chase to a boar and the dog was at once disembowelled. 
The bitch was so frightened that she would not chase anything, and there 
were no hares at NoakhoUy. 

I kept some hog-deer in my compound ; they were very tame and bred 
annually, at night they were regularly shut up with the poultry. The horns 
of the hog-deer are worth nothing as trophies ; and as venison the haunches 
are not particularly good. 

The next deer which will probably fall before you is the sambhur, or gous — 
an animal nearly as big as a horse ; the tail of one now on my table (my 
only trophy connected with this species) measures eighteen inches. This is the 
deer you so often read about in Indian sporting tales. The young English idea 
connects him with deer-stalking in the highlands of Scotland, and long and 
arduous runs with the Devon and Somerset stag-hounds. Nothing of the 
kind is ever thought of in Eastern Bengal. The animal is only to be found 
in tree-jungle and thickets, and in the densest grass near large extent of 
forest or jungle-covered hills. I have shot numbers and met with them 
constantly for years ; but I never saw one feeding out in the open, however 
e.arly I might have sought the jungle side. They were almost all shot with 
spherical bullets from smooth-bore gims^ and seldom at a greater distance 
than fifty yards. 

The gous is always considered a prize, and when the whereabouts of one is 
known or when one has been roused he is generally pursued and as generally 
killed; his only chance is when he manages to make good his escape into im- 
limited heavy forest-jungle, where he cannot be intercepted. His first rush, 
when alarmed, is grand ; he lays his horns back, puts his nose in the air, 
presents his tough-hided neck to the yielding branches of the tall underwood, 
and crashes and plunges through the thicket with extraordinary strength. I 
have no reason for supposing that his senses of smell and hearing are inferior 
to those of other species of deer ; but he certainly declines to make use of them. 
What can be more noisy than a line of from twenty to thirty elephants, with 
perhaps six or eight chattering sahibs in their howdahs, advancing down 
wind? Nevertheless, under such circumstances I have reached to within 
twenty yards of full-grown sambhur deer. Perhaps the lai^est sambhur doe 
I ever shot was also the first. It was at Dacca and within a few miles of 



SAMBHUR BEER. 207 

the city. A large and very noisy party were out^ at the invitation of the Super- 
intendent of Government Elephant-kheddas. Almost any gentleman who 
had a sporting turn of mind could get invitation to these parties^ and would 
then find an elephant and a howdah provided for him at the meeting-place. 
I was not particularly on the qui vive ; but I suddenly saw a head and two 
very lovely large black eyes looking at me^ and as quickly murderously fired. 
The mahout and my next neighbour asked ^' What made you shoot ? ^' I said 
^' There is a large deer dead in that bush.^^ And so there was ; the ball had 
entered into her throat and passed out behind it through the spine. She was 
very large and very heavy^ and it took several men and a deal of delay to 
hoist her on to the guddy. Generally the sambhur I killed were slain in 
some similar manner. A huge beast would rise with a bound and crash 
among the bushes^ and if you were on the alert you could put a ball into him 
at a very short distance. If not quick^ probably in two or three bounds the 
great stag would be lost to sight in the thick foliage of the tree-jungle; and 
if it was unlimited and unbroken forest^ with no open spaces near^ he might 
probably escape. Still if a sportsman cannot hit an animal as big as a 
horse at thirty or forty yards in a vital spot^ he deserves to lose his venison. 

Of course, if such a large animal is only wounded and not stopped, or 
likely to be immediately stopped, he may receive any amount of balls and 
not fall. I regarded it as butchery to fire at a gous at random at a long 
distance. Often one ball was sufficient ; but even if one ball knocked him 
over it was always good policy to put in another at the back of the head or 
below the ear before he rose again, for many a wounded sambhur has been 
lost. Once we thought we had killed one with fine horns on the banks of 
the Bunsee river. Budderuddeen and two others were cutting his throat, 
when up he jumped, knocked one of the men over and bounded into thick 
gujali jungle. It was more than half an hour before we eventually bagged 
him, after several more shots ; even then he would have escaped had not the 
jungle been in detached portions, which allowed of us taking up positions to 
prevent his escape. 

The horns of the gous of Eastern Bengal, though short and heavy, are not 
to be compared in size with those of Central or Western India. The animal 
itself is apparently quite as large, if not larger. In Ceylon, I believe, this is 
the deer that goes by the name of the elk ; and there, as a rule, his horns are 
less than those of Eastern Bengal. We used to consider the venison as 
coarse; but I have eaten the tongue and the marrow and made nice soup out of 
sambhur and occasionally have grilled a steak and approved of it. But as 
food for a large camp the slaughter of a fine sambhur becomes quite a treat ; 
and when the mahouts and camp attendants are well fed they are contented, 
but when provisions are scarce, ''grumpy'' is no fit name for their tempers. 

Gt)us-deer were numerous in all the Dacca forest-jungle, in the gujali 
and in the thick tree-forest, and in the heavy grass in swampy ground^ and 



208 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

they were to be found from the outskirts of the city all up the Bunsee on 
both banks, through the entire len^h of the Mymensing district till the 
Brahmapootra churs were reached, and then onward through Assam and 
Rungpore, and all along the base of the Himalayas in the Terais of 
Pumeah. In Dacca now I hear they are scarce ; and if the rail is made all 
along the line of the Bunsee river, Cervus aristotelis will probably soon 
disappear from these jungles, where they can be hunted. They will probably 
retreat to the Sylhet and Shooshung and Assam hills. These hiUs in the 
two first-named places are generally thorny and covered with unlimited spaces 
of jungle, where sport is difficult. The gous is common in these districts and 
extends through Tippera to Chittagong ; but European gentlemen do not go 
to these thorny never-ending jungles for sport, and the deer are shot at their 
drinking-places by native shikarries. 



Letter No. 52. 

Deer over m other countries not always difficult to approach. — ^The Spotted Deer. Not 
common and only to be found in some districts. I kill some at Obhyah in Rajshahye 
and some fine Peacocks. — The Swamp-Deer. Its habitat. Great numbers driven into 
small dry and high spots in inundations in Sylhet. I kiU several, but think the sport 
poor. — Deer as a rule not shot at if a Tiger is expected. — ^The Barking-Deer. — ^Remarks 
on Deer-shooting. — Antelope only now to be found in Pumeah. Reasons why we did 
not shoot them there. — ^To ride and spear an Antelope is considered a great feat. 

No kind of deer^ except the spotted deer, which I met with in Eastern Bengal 
was difficult to approach. No care as to the direction of the wind or as to 
silence was necessary with respect to any of them ; they regarded concealment 
in thick leafy or forest shelter or grass jungles as their security. In open 
plains^ after the grass was burnt and only light patches remained^ hog-deer 
would get up at a distance^ and were what is called wild ; but then they 
only ran to thicker cover, and if in this they could be cut off and beaten to 
an open point, they would often break across close to an elephant. 

Even the red deer of Britain differs greatly in his cautiousness when the 
nature of the country differs. In the Scotch Highlands he is difficult to 
approach ; but with the Devon and Somerset stag-hounds the old stag will 
often remain quiet though surrounded with hounds. I have known one 
harboui:ed in gorse or furze-brake, where his horns were visible, and to lie 
still within a short distance of horsemen looking at the place, till the tufters 
came, and one almost jumped on to his back before he rose up. 

The spotted deer is not met with in all the districts of Eastern Bengal. 



StOl^ED DEER. 209 

It is common in the Soonderbunds^ but is unknown in Chittagong^ Tippera^ 
Sylhet, Dacca, or Mymensing; it is found in the Rajshahye and Maldah 
districts. I never met with it in the lower Brahmapootra churs, but it may 
appear as you ascend the river ; I have heard of it there, but other deer 
when young are sometimes spotted, and all sportsmen are not necessarily 
naturalists. The spotted deer is the most beautiful of the Bengal deer and 
carries long, thin, graceful horns. 

I met with few ; I have shot them in the Soonderbunds and in the Burrin 
of Rajshahye. They wander more into the open and are more wary than 
other Bengal deer. I went out in the early morning at Obhyah, where I so 
nearly bagged my first tiger, as related before, to look out for hog-hunting 
ground and to learn the country. I was mounted on a noisy unmanageable 
elephant, and in the Burrin I disturbed a deal of game, but did no good, 
and resolved to have an afternoon's wanderings about these nice jungles, and 
I went out prepared for spotted deer and peafowl, with a horse and his atten- 
dant and a gun-carrier. An hour or so before sunset I came on spotted 
deer, and approached them up wind carefully. They were feeding and 
sauntering about the glade-like opening, and, while watching some at a dis- 
tance, a herd of seven or eight, mostly or all bucks, came out of some jungle 
close to me, and I knocked over a couple right and left ; they did not see 
me ; and after running a short distance they all stopped, turned, and gazed 
at a dying deer convulsively struggling on the ground. I had another 
smooth-bore in my hand, and regretted much that I had not brought a rifle; 
however, the distance was only about one hundred and twenty yards. I 
rested the Joe Manton on a tree, and aimed at the shoulder of the best 
buck, and aimed rather high. The ball struck the very place I wished, and 
the third lovely stag was laid low. After this dusk came on, and I heard 
the peacocks calling and saw them flying on to the high cotton-trees. I 
marked them with a binocular and stalked up to those which had the finest 
trains. I shot two with ball as they sat unsuspicious on the bare boughs ; 
the trains were in splendid order, hardly an eye missing in either of them. 
I had some difficulty in finding my way home in the dark. 

Spotted deer did not come much in my way in after years ; the jungles 
where they were to be found in Backergunge were very distant from head- 
quarters and hard to get at. I never met with one when shooting in line 
fit)m elephants. They were not common in Purneah, though they exist in 
the Purneah terai. I believe other sportsmen have killed them in Rung- 
pore and Maldah. They are very numerous in the Cuttack jungles, and are 
more widely spread over India generally than any other deer. 

The home of the swamp-deer is in the wide marshy plains known as the 
Howahs of Sylhet; from thence they extend all along Mymensing and 
Assam to the base of the Himalayas, and along the north of Rungpore and 
Purneah, and beyond the limits referred to in these letters. There are none 



210 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

in Chittagoug^ NoaklioUy, or Dacca^ or in the districts on the right bank of 
the Ganges below Bajmehal. They are said to inhabit the Backergunge 
Soonderbunds, and I have been shown horns from there. I gave an account 
of the death of one in a former letter, whose horns have been drawn ; bat 
these horns, which I still have, are abnormal, and I never met or saw any 
like them. I have a pair which belonged to a larger and, I believe, an older 
deer, shot in Sylhet, and these have the regular number of tines, which is 
almost invariably twelve. The animal is generally called '' barah singah,'' 
or twelve-horned. 

Having heard much of these deer in the Sylhet Howahs I made a special 
point of visiting these places. Sylhet is a very damp district, and rain falls 
there much more than in the more western districts. These places have 
always much water spread about them, but for most part of the year animals 
managed to find sufficiently dry land to enable them to stray and secrete 
themselves in the various shrub and tree and grass jungles, which ail get 
submerged in the inundations when the rains are at their height. For the 
few weeks when the waters are high, all the quadrupeds of these plains betake 
themselves to the teelahs, or small hilly mounds, where they can keep them- 
selves from drowning, and at such times these places are crowded with game. 
It was to these teelahs that I was directed to go, and no easy matter was it 
to get there. I travelled in a boat. The elephants, shikarry, &c. had been 
sent ahead. I got on the elephants and had to traverse a deal of ground ; 
progress was much impeded by the inundation, and the elephants were con- 
stantly guddy-deep in water and grass. I at last beat up one high ridge, but 
the grass was thin and short, and by the greatest ill-luck I missed bagging 
a magnificent tiger, which was roused by a sounder of hogs which went 
rattling and snorting away from the elephants. I put the rifle into its place 
in the howdah and sat down, when my attendant in the howdah touched me 
on the shoulder and pointed to the tiger, just walking into a deep, watery, 
low part of the ground ; he swam out of sight in almost a minute, and I knew 
he was safe, so I went on. The next place I got to was a dry teelah covered . 
with grass about six feet high ; here there were only a few inches of water. 
I never could have believed that so many wild deer and animals could have 
been so crowded togther. Khyah partridges were rising and screaming at 
every step, and all around me I could see horns moving about ; the grass 
was high enough to conceal the bodies of the swamp-deer, but I could see 
their horns. As soon as the first astonishment ceased, I began to consider 
which pair of horns was the finest, then getting rather close to the animal, 
and judging as to his neck and shoulder, I fired. In this way I soon had 
killed four magnificent bucks ; but it was mere murderous slaughter, there 
was no sport, nor pursuit, nor pleasure in these proceedings. Four large 
deer were quite as much as I could dispose of in that hot weather, among the 
boatmen, mahouts, and attendants. I padded the stags and gave up the 



SWAMP- AND BARKING-DEER, 211 

pursuit of them, and thought I would make a bag of khyah partridges. 
These birds, all wet and with heavy plumage, flew slowly ; in ten minutes I 
shot three brace ; but the men on the elephants knocked over three birds with 
sticks in the same time. Neither could this be considered sport. I gave up 
and retired to my boat ; the rain came down in a Sylhet deluge. This was 
my only day's shooting in the Sylhet Howahs. 

SiDce muskets and guns have been sold to the natives by the stupid 
Government arrangements, which have supplied the natives quite needlessly 
with arms for no good whatever, deer and other animals are gradually 
being exterminated in these inundations. It was bad enough for the deer 
when the villagers only came in crowds in boats, armed with nets and spears 
and all manner of weapons and clubs. Great numbers were slain annually 
even then ; but when in each boat there were two or three men armed with 
discarded regimental muskets or rifles, the deer and the hogs were killed by 
tens and twenties where formerly they fell only by twos and threes. I leave 
you to judge of the effect of the change on the game of the country. 

When tiger-shooting, and the tiger has been padded, and there is little 
likelihood of another tiger that day, the rules for not shooting at inferior 
game till all chance of superior animals has vanished are relaxed; on the 
homeward beat the sportsmen shoot at everything, sometimes a snipe, some- 
times a bear, sometimes a peacock. Some of the party, if the ground is well 
known, have probably ordered their horses to some neighbouring familiar 
place, and these take spears and endeavour to add a little pig-sticking to the 
day's sport ; and of such a party, you may be sure, I was a keen member : 
but others remain in the howdah, and often have sport as valuable to them 
as a run and a fight with a four-year old boar is to us ; and if such a party 
fall in with a fine antlered swamp-deer in a patch of heavy and damp grass, 
they too reach the tents rejoicing. 

The only other deer regularly met with in the jungles of Eastern Bengal is 
the little '^ kakur/' or barking-deer — a pretty little fellow, not nearly so large as 
a Scotch roedeer, with two very peculiar teeth attached loosely to his upper 
jaw. He is most generally shot with No. 5 shot, and requires very little 
harder hitting than a hare. His brown meat is savoury, and he is well 
worth a little trouble. 

Usually I shot him when beating for jungle-fowl and peafowl &c. in dry 
tree or bush jungle. He is never found in the open plain like the hog-deer, 
nor does he leave his jungles to feed far off, as the spotted deer; and if ever 
he seeks deep heavy forest thicket, as the sambhur does, he is as secure as a 
needle in a haystack. At the foot of the hills he comes out, however, to 
nibble the dewy grass in the early morning with the jungle-fowk, and here 
is waited for and shot with a small-bore rifle. I have killed many in this 
way in Tippera, and the native shikarries slay a great number in' this manner ; 
for he is not very wary, and no very great skill is required to obtain a shot 

p2 



212 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

at him. I never met with the barking-deer except in the districts to the 
eastward. The deer that ^' barks '' in the Soonderbunds is the spotted deer ; 
but the barking-deer is widely spread over India and known by several 
names^ so I am not prepared to state that he is not to be found in Rajshahye^ 
Maldah^ and Dinagepore ; I merely state that I did not meet with him except 
towards the eastern districts. 

After all^ deer- shooting from the howdah is rather tame sport : the diffi- 
culties of pursuit and chase are wanting ; no art or study is required as in 
stalking a red deer in the Scottish Highlands^ no skill in shooting such as even 
a snipe demands is required ; there is the absence of the spice of danger which 
is always present in tiger-shooting. In hog-hunting there is skill and pace^ 
hard ridings the contest for the first spear^ the fight with its danger to horse 
and man^ and then the blunt steady courage of the boar is wanting to the 
timid stag. For these reasons deer-shooting from the howdah had no charms 
at all for me if there was any chance of spearing a hog ; and thus I directed 
many a party of deer-shooters, firing from the backs of my own elephants, 
for days, when I carried no weapon but a hog-spear and never pulled a 
trigger. 

Antelope are not unknown in Eastern Bengal, but I never fired a shot at 
one. In very early days I went out with a party at Moorshedabad to see 
antelopes hunted with trained cheetahs or hunting-leopards. These belonged 
to the Nawab of Moorshedabad, and the country was some dry, shrubby, wild, 
uncultivated tract to the west of Berhampore. We saw antelopes, but could 
not get near enough to them to show them to the cheetahs. Whether 
antelopes still exist in that country I am unable to say : there are, however, 
some herds in the Pumeah between the head station and the Ganges; 
these are inhabitants of the wild plains, managed by the indigo-planters, the 
best and most hospitable of men ; these gentlemen opened their houses to 
the civilians and sportsmen of the district with grand hospitality. Their 
elephants, their coolies as beaters, their boats, and, above all, their services 
as preservers of game and providers of sport were lavishly given to us. In 
return, they asked us, the hog-hunters and sporting gentry of the head 
station, to spare their antelopes. The animal was getting scarcer, the herds 
lessening in numbers ; Brahmins dote on roast antelope haunches, and in the 
high inundations the Hindoos murder them in every way, especially with the 
discarded army muskets and rifles, which may some day be used in agricul- 
tural disturbances, as contraband arms are in Connaught. Of course the 
Pumeah sportsmen spared the antelopes, and though I met with them scores 
of times and admired their beautiful bounds, and rather coveted their ringed 
horns, I never fired a single shot at them. 

About 1848-1850 there were antelope occasionally to be seen in the 
Kishnaghur district, but I believe they have been quite exterminated \ in 



GAME BIRDS. 218 

Western Bengal^ and^ indeed^ over nearly all India^ they are still nomerons^ 
and most Indian sportsmen have killed them. 

There is nothing harder in the way of riding than to spear a fairly 
ridden black buck ; but the feat has been several times accomplished in 
Upper India^ and^ I believe^ in Madras and Bombay. I do not think it has 
been fairly attempted in Eastern Bengal ; but the Danish hero of the spear^ 
veil known to the Dinagepore and Rungpore sportsmen^ must have tried it ; 
and if it has been done he has done it. 



Letter No. 68. 

Game Birds in Bengal. — Partridges. . The Black or Francolin. Common in many districts, 
but not in Tippera, NoakhoUy, or Chittagong. — My compound at Pumeah. — The Ehjah 
Partridge. Noisy and hard to flush more than once. — The Quail. Quail-years. Large 
bags made in those years. — Receipts for cooking Quails. — The Bengal Floriken. Com- 
mon only in some districts; considered a prize and excellent on table. Handsome 
plumage. 

Before attacking the deligbtful subject of wildfowl-shootings which^ for the 
most parts is restricted to the wide open plains and placid lagoons only to be 
found at long distances from the cutcherriess in which you will have to toil 
with your pen at least eleven days out of each fortnight^ I must tell you a 
little about such birds as are really game^ and ought to be easily procurable 
by any sportsman of Eastern Bengal who owns a breech-loader and thinks he 
ought to use it. I allude to partridges^ quail^ and floriken. Snipe were 
fully discussed in earlier letters. 

There are only two kinds of partridges in Eastern Bengal — ^the black 
partridge^ which is the francolin (Francolinus vulgaris) and known in Europe; 
and the khyah partridge^ improperly though commonly called chickore 
{Ortygamis gularis). Whether the grey partridge^ nearly allied to the 
khyahs ever comes into Western Moorshedabad I cannot positively state ; it 
approaches to the west of the Hoogly, but I never shot it myself in the 
Eastern Bengal to which these letters are confined^ so I shall not further refer 
to it. 

The black partridge is a handsome game bird; and though generally he is 
very easy to knock over^ even from a howdah^ he affords very pleasant sporty 
and I have enjoyed a great many pleasant afternoons shooting blacks. 
Where black partridges abound^ hog-deer^ hares^ hogs^ snipe^ &c. are sure 
to be found. My fondness for hog-hunting must * have saved the lives of 



214 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

thousands of black partridges ; for I have been amongst them the whole long 
day, and for three days running, and never levelled a barrel at them. Their 
most peculiar and unmistakable call has pleased my ear as I started tiger- 
shooting or on some other sport every year of my Indian life ; for they are 
generally spared when larger game may be looked for. In almost every 
district they are to be got, and wherever naturally growing grass-jungle 
exists, especially if com and crops are cultivated anywhere near such grass, 
the black partridge may be found — ^that is, north and west of Tippera, Noak- 
hoUy, and Chittagong. In these three districts I never heard the '' Teeree-tee- 
teetur,'' so well known in the neighbouring districts from Dacca northwards 
and westwards. 

The black partridge may be shot to dogs or to beaters, and if you are a 
tolerably good shot you will scarcely ever miss one, unless he comes down 
wind at a great pace. I generally shot them from the howdah and very few 
escaped : I have several times killed them with a ball out of a smooth-bore. 
The bird generally rises from twenty to twenty-five yards in firont of the 
elephant and flies straight. A covey of blacks rising at once is never known, 
so you do not require to pick out a bird. The young ones, which I have 
often met with, do not rise in coveys. The plumage of the cock is most 
handsome. 

The bird does not avoid cultivation nor the neighbourhood of villages ; it is 
found close to Dacca and abounds in Mymensing : I never could see any 
reason why it was not to be seen in Tippera or Sylhet. At Pumeah it used 
to come into my garden in the inundations ; but I believe some were there all 
the year round. It was a wonderful place for zoology that garden of mine ! 
At the bottom was a marsh and a considerable extent of deep water which was 
connected with a river ; crocodiles bred in the holes near the water. There 
were snakes (venomous and the reverse), turtles, otters, and quantities of fish ; 
the neophron vulture nested in the tall tal-trees; kites, hawks, pigeons, 
doves, cuckoos of several kinds, and bulbuls nested within sight of the house, 
and in the garden I bagged my first little hombill ; the long white-tailed 
paradise flycatcher and numbers of interesting birds frequented the guava, 
orange-, and peach-trees ; but of game birds I shot common and jack snipe, 
black partridge and quail, and several kinds of ducks. An ornithologist 
coming fresh from England and located for his first fortnight at the land- 
station of Pumeah would have been busy from sunrise to sunset in procuring 
specimens and half the night in preserving them. Still I consider the base 
of the Tippera hills as still better ground for seeing a great variety of charming 
Indian birds. The black partridge is not a bird of much flavour in the 
dish. 

To the man who has only shot black partridges the sudden bouncing whirr 
and scream of the khyah partridge out of the thick tall grass near the swamp 
is so disconcerting that many a one misses his khyah, though a larger bird 



GAME BIRDS. 216 

than the black. The khyah is not nearly so common as the black ; they go 
in pairs in the dry weather and congregate in numbers in the rains ; they are 
never found far from swampy ground or places that for a great part of the 
year are either under water or swampy ; they perch habitually in bushes^ black 
partridge only exceptionally : the khyah^ too^ is very noisy at times ; but his 
scream is unmelodious and no pleasant memories are attached to it. In parts 
of Tippera it resorts to dense cane-brakes and bSnt- jungles^ and is at all times 
difficult to put up ; but if put up and marked into a cane-brake, the khyah 
will rise no more — indeed in very thick grass-jungle it is not worth while to 
waste time in trying to get the birds up a second and a third time. 

The black partridge affords the best sport of the two, and is found in much 
more accessible places. The khyah loves the heavy grass and rose-jungles, 
where you might expect tiger and buffaloes ; and though black partridges are 
fond, like almost every known species of game, of rose-jungles, yet you will 
never find the khyah in the nice little thatching-grass patches and the mustard 
crops and flowery oil crop in which you can walk so easily and so agreeably 
knock over the black partridge, the hare, and the quail. The khyah is found 
in Purneah, and equally in Tippera and in every district between the two 
zillahs where heavy and damp jungle is to be found. 

The quail is a bird which is most uncertain ; for two or three years running 
you may hardly meet with a trace in the most eastern districts, but in the 
third or fourth year you will find them absolutely swarming, especially in 
February — you will kick them up under every bush in the garden and find 
the long rice-stubbles almost alive with quail. To the westward they are 
more regularly abundant ; but even there I believe there are regular quail- 
years. 

Very large bags of quail can be made in the quail-years by those who are 
disposed to take the trouble. I never tried to make one of these murderous 
slaughters, chiefly because the birds appeared in greatest numbers in the 
spring, and at that time hog-hunting, tiger-shooting, wildfowling, and every 
sport almost except snipe-shooting was at its best, and the poor little quail 
held out no inducement to me. I have put them up at nearly every step of 
the horse ; I have struck at them at times with the hog-spear. In the after- 
noons I have gone out and shot between twenty and thirty brace ; but there is 
little sport in the pursuit : the bird rises quite close and flies generally straight; 
some nice double shots are offered ; but there is a sameness in the shooting, 
and with small charges of powder and No. 8 or No. 10 shot you can scarcely 
miss. I have no record of what other men shot; but, according to my 
memory, I have known two guns shoot more than eighty couple of quail in a 
forenoon on the plains of Parbuttia, while most of us were hunting hog. 

Some men think quail a delicacy on the dish ; to me it seemed somewhat 
dry and tasteless. I will give you some receipts for cooking it : — 

This is Jerdou's pie : — " Take twelve quails and nicely pluck them, and two 



216 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

pounds of beef-steak ; cram a spoonful of pftte de foie gras inside each bird, 
and wrap it in a slice of thin bacon. Add a small tin of truffles, half a bottle 
of button-mushrooms, six hard-boiled eggs (each cut in half), condiments, 
sauces, ' selon le goiit,' fill in with rich stock, cover with good crust, and bake 
slowly ; and if your cook is a good one, the pie will be good." 

Baron Brisse gives another receipt : — '^ Draw and singe your quails : peel 
some truffles and cut them into large dice; pound the quails' livers and the 
truffle-trimmings in a mortar, season with salt and white pepper, stir in a lump 
of butter, warm in a saucepan, and when cold stuff the birds with this force- 
meat and the chopped truffles : roast, and serve with P^rigueuz sauce.'' 

If you want a simpler receipt, take mine : — Pluck and draw your quail ; cut 
a piece of lemon the size of a dice and pepper it with cayenne pepper, and 
wrap the dice in a very thin slice of bacon. Have a saucepan of water well 
boiling ; take it off the fire and drop the quail into the water, but do not put 
the saucepan again on the fire. Let the bird remain in the hot water three 
minutes ; then take it out, insert the lemon wrapped in the bacon into the 
bird, and then fry it nicely in bread crumbs, and serve on a leaf. 

Quails are caught in great numbers for fattening and for sale ; they are 
taken in nets and traps, and I have seen them caught with bird-lime. The 
bird-catcher has a shield made of the grass and herbage where the quail are ; 
and behind this he conceals himself, moving the shield forward as he chooses 
and sticking it upright in the ground. In the one hand he has some dry 
grass, which he squeezes with a regular motion, imitating exactly the noise of 
a cow chewing and feeding ; with the other hand he works a long thin bamboo 
rod with a limed twig at the end, and so catches the birds. 

There are several other kinds of quail beside the common grey quail to be 
found in the western parts ; but quails generally are scarce towards the east 
of the country concerning which I write. The extremely pretty little bird 
called the blue quail (Excalfactoria sinensis) was common in the indigo-fields 
of Dacca and Mymensing. I am told there is not a factory now left in those 
districts. The rain-quail was present in Rajshahye ; but I only killed these 
two birds in the pursuit of ornithology ; they did not afford real sport. 

The Bengal floriken, or florican, for there is no rule for the spelling of 
Indian zoological names {Sypheotides bengalensis) , is a small bustard and 
a right glorious kind of game ; very handsome and game-like in plumage ; 
some think the best bird on table to be found in Bengal ; rare enough to 
make sportsmen keen in pursuit, and at times cautious and wary. It fell to 
my lot to kill numbers of floriken yearly, except when stationed atNoakholly 
and Chittagong. At Dacca they were to be found in places I knew of; in 
Mymensing they were numerous, and on the Brahmapootra plains plentiful : 
but in Purneah, both north and south, they were exceedingly numerous ; I 
have seen fourteen in the air at one time, and they breed in Purneah and stay 
there all the year. 



WILDFOWU 217 

In maDy places they are partial to burnt grass ; and in such spots occasionally 
they may be found in Tippera. Some are most delicate eating ; but I have 
tasted floriken which were coarse and strong. 

Generally the bird rises unexpectedly before you when beating grass for 
hog-deer or hogs. Though large and heavily feathered^ he is easily bagged, 
and of course^ as his size is great, he is easy to hit. If wild and taking 
long circular flights, you can watch him, and when marked into a patch, get 
ofi^ the elephant and sneak round to some marked spot in front and let the 
elephants beat him up towards you. If you see him sauntering about the 
stalks of the burnt grass, you will not find him hard to stalk on foot. With a 
little care and trouble you should almost always obtain a shot at floriken. 
But there is no use in trying to exterminate them as Jerdon did in Pumeah ; 
he said he wanted a series aind killed about forty, half a dozen would have 
answered his purpose as well. 

The male is easily distinguished by his black and white plumage; the 
female's plumage is buff-yellow, barred most beautifully with black, and the 
inner part of the feathering of both sexes is rosy pink. I believe I once 
killed a specimen of the lesser floriken (Sypheotidei aurittu), the bird so well 
known in Madras ; it was in Parneah and I have heard that other " likhs,*' as 
they caU them, have been shot in that district. 



Letter No. 54. 

Wildfowl. — ^The sport with Wildfowl in India most excellent Cheaply got: with some 
trouble to be enjoyed from nearly all districts. Best time for. — Obtain the good offices 
of Planters, Zemindars, and Villagers so as to have the land and waters kept undisturbed. 
— Sport more enjoyable than the wildfowling of England. — ^The Coolen. — Budderuddeen 
as a Shikany after Wildfowl. — Difficulty in obtaining my first Ooolen. How we bagged 
six at last in one morning. — The Sayrus. 

The sport of hog-hnnting takes the first rank among Indian field-sports. 
Tiger-shooting by many is considered as good^ and snipe-shooting also takes 
a high place, but the ever-varying and exciting pursuit which comes under 
the wide-spreading term of wildfowl-shooting is most charming and most 
satisfactory. For this I always laid myself out and spared neither trouble 
nor expense. But^ indeed^ except for the trouble of going long distances in a 
short time^ which is unavoidable if a hard-worked ofScial really means to 
secure good sporty and but for the expense of boats and shikarries and a 
little money judiciously expended in keeping waters undisturbed for a few 
days^ wildfowling costs but little. Nearly all my best was obtained through 



218 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

» 

the aid of those excellent fellows the indigo-planters. At the distant 
borders of nearly every district uncaltivated and half-deserted areas of 
worthless ground and wide marsh and watery expanse are to be found ; 
here in February and March the wild ducks and geese, the ooolen and 
the plover, and innumerable waders of kinds dear either to the sportsman 
or thp ornithologist, resort in flocks. If the landholders and gentlemen in 
authority, or of influence among the population of such places, will induce 
the fishermen and agriculturists to leave the wildfowl undisturbed in order 
that the Hakim or the Sahib may enjoy real good sport, you will find yourself 
making tremendous bags of web-footed or wading birds. You may render 
your visit agreeable in may ways. Wildfowl, and many heavy-bodied wading- 
birds, go a long way as food among the poorer natives ; backsheesh and 
strong drink will keep many a bheel still and quiet ; and the civilian 
resident at headquarters may, with hospitality and a little politeness and 
attention to the gentlemen and to the ladies of the distant factories, in some 
measure make a return for the sport which the planter so often preserves for 
the civilian. 

But should the landholder, the planter, or the villagers dislike your advent, 
they can in the easiest manner destroy all your sport and take away all 
inducement for a visit next season. The grass may bo burnt ; hordes of 
fishermen with boats directed to fish the waters just on the days you want to 
shoot, and two or three native gunners firing in the moonlight nights when 
the birds are on the feed, and at about 10 a.m. when they congregate to rest in 
their usually undisturbed places, and perhaps discharging their guns just as 
you are stealthily nearing your best chance for a grand shot, will spoil all your 
expected fun. Believe me there is no surer way of getting good sport than 
by cultivating the goodwill of the planters, and zemindars, and villagers; and 
no more certain method of spoiling your own amusement than that of 
insisting on going contrary to their reasonable desires. As a stranger to a 
district you can know little, whereas the planter as a permanent resident, and 
aided by local knowledge of the game, the country, and its human as well as 
other occupants, must be fully acquainted with the state of the ground and 
the waters, the game and the crops, and the feeling of the people, and able to 
assist you materially or to thwart you most completely. 

As a boy I delighted much in bagging a brace of wild ducks. I would 
wade in cold water, and rain, and mud for flappers, and would lay on the 
damp rocks at the sea-shore waiting for the flight of various wildfowl to the 
mouth of the burn, or spend hours with bent back and crouching gait in 
frost and snow to bag the wary curlew or let blaze into a crowded flight of 
golden plover. But all these delights were associated with bad weather, 
chilling east winds, long walks over bad ground, feet wretchedly cold, fingers 
benumbed till the trigger could scarce be felt, and weary trudges home in 
the dark. Compared with this the pursuit of wildfowl in Eastern Bengal 



BUDDERVDDEEN SHIKARRT. 210 

is luxury — no oold^ generally no excessive heat^ no long walks, an elephant 
or a horse to carry you, a boat to sit in ; and then the tremendous bags to be 
got 1 not a couple or perhaps two couple of ducks, but heads to be counted 
in scores, and so deliciously fat and tender on the platter I Wildfowl- 
shooting when birds are plentiful in Bengal is a most enjoyable and health- 
giving recreation; and fortunately it is to be procured by all English 
sportsmen who will really take the trouble to obtain it, and from every 
station to which I ever was appointed. 

First I will begin with the tallest bird and about the most difficult to bring 
to bag without a duck-gun. The kooleen, or coolen ( Chrus cinerea) , the common 
crane. Why conunon crane ? I never saw or heard one in England or in 
Scotland. It is reported that King Edward had one hundred cranes on his 
table at once ; and if so, cranes were probably common then ; but among writers 
who did not care for ornithology the term crane may have been applied to 
herons and egrets. In parts of England a heronry is still termed a cranery. 
At any rate the king knew what was good, for a tender crane about 
Christmas, corn-fed, is a right good bird and fit for a king. 

But before telling you more about coolen, I must let you know, without 
concealment, that most of my stalking of wildfowl was done either by 
Budderuddeen my shikarry or with his advice and aid. No better shikarry 
as regards all manner of wildfowl could serve any master. He delighted in 
this part of his business and had been brought up to it. I had to send him 
always to search for ground for hog-hunting and tiger-shooting ; but where- 
ever he went he never failed to inquire and observe as to the habits of all 
kinds of geese and ducks and waders in any new neighbourhood. He was 
lithe and active ; in an instant he would be stripped to his lingootee. For 
any requisite time he would lie on his stomach in soft mud with his mouth 
just above it, or immerse himself in the coldest water, all but his head, or 
crane through thorns and bushes and grass, concealing himself as if he was 
no larger than a cat. He never seemed to get impatient. He would watch 
till I was tired of watching him through a biuocular, till he could make 
certain of so many heads at one shot. His management of Bengalee cows 
was marvellous. He had a better hand on a cow's tail than Jem Mason had 
on a hunter's rein ; both took their animals across wide bottoms in wonderful 
style. He had one peculiar art, he could drive several cows or oxen at once 
towards his game^ and he did it slowly and steadily. At times I took great 
advantage of this, but very often Bengalee cattle would not allow a European 
near them j none seemed to mind him, though his treatment of their tails was 
barbarous. To crown all, he was the very best shot at a bird on the ground I 
ever saw, and a gun in his hands seemed to kill ten or twenty yards further than 
with any one else. But he never could fire a second barrel. I hardly got him 
to discharge the second barrel half a dozen times during his long service with 
me. His sight was nearly as good as mine with a binocular. He was truthful. 



•30 SPORT IN EAOTERN BENGAL. 

In my early days I had no dnck-gnn and all my sport was with ordinary 
smooth-bores^ but in latter days I had both double-barrelled duck-gun and 
breech-loaders. When the duck-gun came into use, half the value of 
Budderuddeen's skill vanished, but he made some most tremendous long 
shots with that duck-gun, especially at geese. Such was my shikarry, my 
right hand at wildfowl and valued assistant at every species of shikar. 

I knew the coolen well, and for years I coveted the prize ; I had met with 
him when hog-hunting with the Calcutta Tent Club as far south as Diamond 
Harbour. I had heard his loud trumpet in the Maldah district when tiger- 
shooting with the judge. I had watched him with a glass when resting on 
the sand-banks in the Oanges, and admired his ash-coloured plumage and the 
scarlet about his head j but it was not till the second year of my time at 
NoakhoUy that I actually shot them. 

I told Budderuddeen that I must shoot them, and he at once offered to get 
any number with tame buffaloes ; but the cattle would not let me go near them. 
Neither after seeing our elephants and party would coolen let me stalk them.. 
There were several nullahs with high banks near Hingootea, and I observed 
that at morning and evening the coolen came to feed in the rice-fields and 
flew low across these nullahs. I told Budderuddeen to select a spot for con- 
cealment, and I would go there before daybreak and wait for them ; accord- 
ingly, after a day's hog-hunting, I rose from my bed at 8 a.m., leaving my 
companions fast asleep, and started on two elephants, taking three double guns 
and large shot. It was dark when we reached the spot ; the elephants were 
sent off for more than a mile ; the concealment under an overhanging bank 
was perfect, and the shikarry declared that the birds would come almost within 
arm's length ; his only counsel was, '^ Let a score pass over before you rise ; 
you will then be in the middle of them and they will fly in all directions." 
We cocked the three guns and waited. 

As soon as the first streak of sunrise tinged the east, and while the stars 
were bright, we heard the loud trumpetings of the flocks of birds which had 
been sleeping securely on the sand-banks in the deep Megna ; and before very 
long we knew they were coming. I heard the flap of many heavy wings ; I 
actually felt the wind from the pinions : a lot of these very large birds passed 
right over our place of ambush ; then we rose up. I knocked over two at 
about fifteen yards, and then took up the second gun and floored one more 
and mortally wounded a fourth, and Budderuddeen shot the only coolen he 
ever killed flying in his life. This was splendid. The birds took some more 
killing; Budderuddeen " hallal-kur'd '' them in the proper Mahommedan 
fashion, and we went after the wounded bird, which was done for and easily 
despatched. 

We hid the birds and waited for more, but no more came ; this the first 
flock clearly communicated with the other flocks, and all seemed disconcerted 
and wild. We travelled along the bottom of the nullah for miles, taking such 



THE COOLEN and THE SAYRtJS. 22l 

observations as we could with safety ; and by dint of careful stalking I got 
another double shot at some coolen feeding, and bagged one. Six coolens at 
last I We signalled for the elephants^ picked up the beautifijd wild birds^ and 
got back to the tents in time for breakfast. 

When once the charm was broken^ I bagged coolen repeatedly. A very few 
days after^ when standing up in my boat watching for any bird that might 
come, as we rapidly rounded a corner of the small river, above which was high 
jungle, I came right into the leaders of a flock of coolen and fired, killing 
one ; the shot No. 5 was too small, or I might have bagged two. Sometimes 
I stalked them when Budderuddeen could secure an amiable cow, and once or 
twice I shot them with a lifle ; one way and another I got two or three every 
▼ear. 

There are many bird-catchers who can snare these birds. I have known 
them taken in many districts and have bought them near Furreedpore. Coolen 
apparently visit the districts near the Megna and Brahmapootra about harvest- 
time and remain till the end of March. I never saw them feeding in water. 
They eat rice, and I have known them get the credit of eating melons and 
gourds. 

The sternum of a coolen is curious ; the windpipe passes through it in 
folds ; doubtless this is connected with the resounding note so well known in 
Bengal. 

There is a larger crane in Bengal, the sayrus. This very beautiful bird I 
never shot at ; the natives prize it as a pet and do not like it to be killed ; 
I have watched its fantastic dances and bowings with a glass, and never 
desired to kill such a graceful harmless creature. A Brahmin of Bhowal 
asked me to spare them, and ofiered me two alive if I liked to have them. 
He also said misfortune would befall any one who killed a sayrus. A by- 
stander remarked that the collector sahib of Dacca had killed one a few 
seasons before. *' Yes/^ said the Brahmin, '^ and did not his wife die of 
cholera soon afterwards ? " 

There is a crane very much like the coolen, but a little smaller, called 
'^karkurra ^' {Anthrqpaides virgo), the demoiselle crane. These are common in 
Western India, and I believe I have seen them near the Brahmapootra ; but 
of this I am not positive. 



22S SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 55. 

Various large Waders useful as food for native attendants. — Curlews and sport with theuL — 
Bitterns. — The Heron tribe. — ^Bird-catchers. — Kalims. — ^The Khora. — Cotton-Teal and 
Whistling-Teal. — Godwits and Plover, and various birds. — Rafts: easily made as a 
makeshift 

At times I shot yarious species of storks and ibises : perhaps these can hardly 
be considered game or the killing of them sport ; but their large bodies afford 
a treat to the Hindoo, and when their throats have been cut in the orthodox 
manner they are prized by the Mahommedan family. By gifts of food of 
this sort I won goodwill, and when the villagers, the fishermen, and even the 
gunners found that they received not only remuneration, but a great portion 
of the game I killed, they were much more willing to let me kill it, and would 
even take trouble to keep birds undisturbed, and would come long distances 
to tell me that rare birds had come to the jheel or that ducks were numerous. 

In this way I shot : — the beef-steak bird ; the manikjor {Episcopus melanope- 
largus) ; the pelican ibis, which has the most lovely rosy plumes, in appearance 
and still more in texture, and yet, taken as a whole, the bird is ugly ; the 
shell ibis, or snail-drawer, is a plain bird, but natives value it ; the warty ibis, 
or king curlew ; the glossy ibis, occasionally found in Britain ; and numbers of 
herons of different sizes and colours. Probably when better game is scarce 
and till you become acquainted with these birds, and certainly if you are at 
all an ornithologist, the pursuit of them will take up some of your time in 
your opening seasons. 

The wild and wary curlew was always shot by me — ^that is, when I could get 
a shot at him. Once when shooting golden plover on the wide open plains near 
the Megna, a large flock of curlews came whistling and screaming towards me 
(a most extraordinary thing for such birds to do), and as I put up my gun to 
shoot, a magnificent falcon rose from the rear of the flock. She was the 
cause of this unusual action. I let fly with No. 8 shot ; the falcon did not 
fall ; I watched it with a binocular, for I had never seen so fine a hawk. It 
sat down on an open plain ; I loaded with No. 5 shot and did my best to stalk 
within shot ; but the bird rose wild, and I fired at nearly sixty yards distance ; 
again I marked the bird, and stalked up, and picked it up dead. It was a large 
peregrine falcon, a female, or possibly it might have been a shaheen and not 
a bhyri, for it was large and dark. Next day I shot a small old male peregrine 
in a tree. The pair were preserved and sent to England. 

I got curlews near all the large rivers; they were very numerous at 
Backergunge. We tried all manner of schemes to circumvent them. I shot 
some by the following : — ^There were reaches of the river with muddy shores 
where the birds used to feed, and near these were dense jungles of high 
hoogla. I used to be set on shore and conceal myself just round the corner 



HERONS. 228 

at the mouth of a small stream running into the lai^cr river. The boat then 
took a long circuity proceeded up the other bank^ crossed^ and came down 
towards me ; the curlews would get up warily^ scream^ and fly, and when they 
reached the small stream, turn and fly up it, thus often giving me very nice 
shots. I always regarded a curlew as a prize, and yet they were not good 
enough for table. In every country the curlew is a suspicious wary bird. 
If you can get a cow quiet enough for the purpose, you may get as many with 
her aid as a stalking-horse as in any other way. 

The bittern has always been considered a game bird. They are not 
common ; I only came on them at times and by chance. Every season I shot 
one or two in the rice-fields of NoakhoUy when snipe-shooting ; once I met 
with a number at Pumeah and saw seven on the wing at once. Some friends 
of mine considered them well worth shooting. 

The heron tribe is well represented all over Bengal, and especially in Tip- 
pera and Noakholly. 

I have shot the snowy, large, and small egrets for their plumes ; these are 
only to be got in the rains. As I was riding, about sunset at the end of 
August, along the raised road in Tippera, on the look out for snipe, which are 
generally on the move at that time and so betray their feeding-grounds, I saw 
a number of egrets on a large cotton-tree and was admiring their snow-white 
plumage as it shone in the rays of the setting sun, when one of the birds 
apparently had a fit and fell backwards. Well, why should not a bird have a 
fit? But after a little another egret had a fit; this was too much, so I 
descended from the embankment, got through the water, and rode to the tree. 
I found a native bird-catcher pressing his body against the tree and concealed 
by the buttresses for which the cotton-tree is peculiar. He was catching the 
egrets with bird-lime. He had a set of long bamboos neatly fitting into each 
other, at the top was the limed twig ; he fixed bamboo upon bamboo till he 
reached up to the birds and touched them with the twig ; their wings became 
stuck to this and then they fell. He had several of these birds alive in a 

bag. 

The common heron and the purple heron were sometimes shot for their 
plumes or for food for attendants, and so also was the night-heron. The 
natives asked me to try this bird ; but I said I did not like it, it tasted strong 
and fishy. *' Yes,'* said one, '^ such a nice flavour of fish " ! 

There was another bird which gave us sport at times : the '^ kalim/' or purple 
gallinule or, as Jerdon calls it, purple coot. The plumage is various shades 
of blue, a homy casque on the head and long legs and feet are red. 

The first time I saw these birds they flew into bushes growing in water; 
we resolved to beat them out with the boys, who are almost amphibious. I 
fastened two canoes together, because it was impossible to stand or sit steadily 
in one, they were merely hollowed out palm trees ; but my companion, who 
was famous in his skiff in England, despised the idea of two canoes and 



ild4 StORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

would only have one. Out came the blue birds over our heads^ blaze went 
the shots^ over went my friend^ guns and all, and it took us nearly two hours 
to fish up the guns and dry them and make them ready for sport. 

As the rice-crop ripens these birds are very destructive at the base of the 
Tippera hills. I have even been asked for remission of revenue on account of 
the damage done by them. In one afternoon the collector and I killed a 
hundred. They are as large as a partridge and tender and good to eat. 

We always had a day or two's shooting in these rice-fields in the middle of 
the rains when no other sport was going on. We used to shoot these kalims 
and also Chinese water-pheasants {Chvrurgus hydrophasianus)^ a beautiful 
water-bird with long tail, like a jungle-fowl, and graceful appearance. There 
was also the watercock {GaUicrex), the ^* khora '' of the natives, a game bird to 
shoot, bat valued for catching other khoras. The eggs are taken and put into 
the half of ,a cocoanut-shell lined with cotton; this is bound over a man's 
stomach and so the bird is hatched out. It is brought up tame and taken 
into the high rice, where it calls with an extraordinary sound, more like the 
bellow of a bull than the note of a bird. The wild males answer and bellow 
in return ; when they come near, the tame bird is let loose and runs through 
the thick rice till it meets its adversary ; both birds then fight and entangle 
each other in their long claws, and the native then catches both together and 
places the tame bird again in his cage to call another. A really good khora 
is a very valuable bird. 

Two kinds of ducks are to be found in these rice-fieldsat this time of the year — 
the beautiful little pigmy goose, called by Europeans the cotton-teal (Nettapus), 
and the whistling-teal. Neither of these are regarded exactly as game ; but 
they are about as good as most other ducks, and I fancy it is because they are 
tame and come near houses that they are spared. 

The little cotton-teal builds in walls and ruins and even in factory chimneys, 
and the whistling-teal builds in trees. Neither of these sites are supposed to 
be places for the nests of the duck tribe ; I have, however, taken the e^s of 
both species. An afternoon in the rains, when you can get a fine one, spent 
in a boat in the Tippera rice-fields when the water is from two to two and a 
half feet deep where the crop grows, will give you a deal of pleasure ; your 
guns will be hot with firing, your bag will be exceedingly heavy ; the victims 
are valued greatly by the natives, and the kalims are very destructive to the 
crops. 

When the water dries off these wide plains and there is nothing left but 
long damp rice-stubble, which fiEJls flat on the ground, large flocks of golden 
plover, and sometimes larger flocks of godwits, visit these places. When you 
hear from your ever-watchful shikarry that the plover have come, go i^r 
them at once ; they are fine wild birds, but I never could learn their habits, 
nor know exactly when they would come or how long they might be found. 
Sometimes they are fairly tame, at others exceedingly wild. I was very fond 



PUNTS AND RAFTS. 225 

of shooting them and used to stalk them^ getting Budderaddeen to guide a 
cow or a buffalo by the tail, or sometimes to use two cows with an improvised 
plough. Now and then I would get a rare pot-shot and kill about a score at 
the double discharge. There were a few places near Dacca where almost 
yearly I killed numbers of godwits : the arrival of the birds was reported and 
I generally got an afternoon at them ; next day they were gone and I could 
form no calculation as to when the next crowded flight might be reported 
to me. 

Roaming about the wide and little frequented sandy, muddy, and marshy 
lands, and the jheels constantly to be found a little inland from the mouths 
and junctions of the numerous rivers of Eastern Bengal, as they flow towards 
the Ganges, the Megn% and the sea — more in pursuit of ornithology than for 
orthodox sport — ^I used to meet with rare or curious birds, such as the avocet, 
the spoonbill, and the pratincoles. Sea-eagles, ospreys, and falcons attracted 
attention ; and when following these birds I generally found out localities to 
which geese and ducks, which everybody regards as legitimate objects of sport, 
resorted. Miscellaneous wildfowling was then set aside and serious opera- 
tions planned against Anatidse. 

Once I took to building punts to traverse the shallow lagoons, and my 
friend D., the planter, made two or three, but we found them of little use. 
We never could transport them to the right place ; their cost was money 
thrown away. We neither of us then had duck-guns ; these are quite indis- 
pensable—that is, without them you can make no really large bags ; but 
generally fishing-boats, or canoes made of hollowed out palm trees, two tied 
together, will answer all purposes. If, however, you come to a piece of water 
covered with wildfowl, and no boat or canoe is to be got, you can manufacture 
in less than half an hour two rafts, from which you will be able to fire away 
nearly as well as from a boat. 

Everywhere in Eastern Bengal there are plantain trees and bamboos. Here 
you have all that is necessary for making the raft : cut a few plantain trees, 
place them together in a triangular form, and pin them together with pieces 
of split bamboo ; cut also a seat or two out of the plantain tree. Each raft 
will carry two men. In the first you will go, seated on your plantain stump ; 
one attendant will pole you along with a bamboo pole, and the two men on 
the second raft will secure the game. In this way I have several times 
worked up waters that I had not known of and where boats and canoes were 
not handy. Had I known of this dodge in earlier days I might have killed 
great quantities of wildfowl at which I could never get a shot; and in this 
way also I have passed over deep areas of water across which I could not 
otherwise have gone. I recommend this very simple arrangement to your 
consideration, and only wish I had known of it in the first years of my sporting 
experience, whether in the neighbourhood of Calcutta or in distant Tippera. 
At Mymensing I worked it hard. 

Q 



Sa6 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Letter No. 56. 

Hupooshdee. — Management of the tenantry. — ^My first Indian Gooee. — Gooee-fihooting. 
Budderuddeen excelled at this sport. — Different kinds of Geese. — ^Duck-Shooting. No 
large bags without a good Duck-gun. For the first ten years I had none, then I order 
one to be made. — ^Duck-gun described. — Prepare everything for sport beforehand. — ^How 
to work the sport. — Avoid one particular day. — Sport in the Maldah district — Do not 
let gunfl go in separate boats. — When to fire the Duck-gun. — The cripple-chase. — Send 
attendants to mark other flocks while you pick up the slain. 

When young in the Bengal Civil Service I was appointed to superintend the 
measurement and settlement of a large government property situated in a 
desolate part of Tippera^ where I was to be located in tents more than twenty 
miles from any christian friend (at least, as far as I then knew), and among 
natives reported to be hostile, unwilling to pay any rent or acknowledge any 
landlord. I found my tents pitched at the head of a kind of lake about two 
miles long, and in places nearly half a mile broad ; the edges were thickly 
lined with rushes and flags, and many fishermen toiled in the waters. 

In this estate, called Bupooshdee, I for the first time regularly worked at 
the pursuit of wildfowling. I had plenty to do and a large stafiT of employees — 
besides a deal of work on paper— deciding titles to land and rents, rent disputes 
and qi^rrels for possession, assessments and valuations of all sorts of property. 
I had to test every acre almost of measurement, and to settle the boundaries 
of every holding and tenure great or small. I used as a rule to sit in ofi&ce 
all the morning; and in the afternoon, with the aid of two riding-horses, to 
gallop to parties operating on the land at a distance from my tents, and while 
doing this to combine as much shooting as I could with business. 

The first thing was to map out the estate roughly, and then when the 
position of the lands, villages, jungles, and watery places was defined, to 
apportion out the work and to arrange for my attendants with guns and 
boats. Budderuddeen was not with me in those days, luckily for the wildfo.wl. 
At first there were no ducks or geese — ^the time for their arrival was just coming 
on — but snipe abounded. The first time I went out I beat some thrashing-grass 
for a fine wild cat. This enraged the owner; he would have no revenue 
sahib in his grass — so that night he burnt it all !! But I had a talk with him 
and showed him that he had lost the value of the grass and done me no 
harm; that I came to arrange things justly on the part of a paternal 
government. He had grievances ; I listened to these and attended to them ; 
by degrees I won him over and all the villagers. 

At a former settlement all the inhabitants had been forced to pay a 
native Deputy Collector, and the settlement of the estate had been made 
favourable only to those who paid highest. Before long each tenant on the 
estate almost was engaged in looking out for ducks, geese, and game for me; 



i 



GOOSE-SHOOTING. 227 

and one at last brought me a black-and-white pig^ thinking it better that I 
should get a tender one without trouble^ rather than toil all day in the jungle 
to kill huge tough wild boars II So on the whole I greatly enjoyed my three 
months at Chur Bupooshdee. 

I had no duck-gun, and considered my first wild goose a great catch. It 
happened thus : I was returning to the tents, I had bagged twelve couple of 
snipe, the sun was below the horizon, when I saw a flock of about fifty^ geese 
flying low. They settled in a piece of water surrounded with reeds. I got 
off the horse and arranged to stalk them ; when I got to the reeds I found I 
was very far from the birds, so I had to wade, and I waded and waded 
very slowly and quietly till I could only keep the water out of the level 
barrels. The geese were nearly sixty yards off and their heads were up, 
though they could not make me out among the reeds. I had to fire at that 
distance : one pellet of shot divided a goose's windpipe, and my first Indian 
goose floated dying on the water. The attendant then came, stripped, and 
swam in and brought out what was either a pink-footed goose or a grey-lag 
goose. At the time I thought it was a pink-footed goose, and that all the 
geese except the bar-headed ones which I killed at Bupooshdee were pink- 
footed. I knew little of ornithology at the time, and I have since been told 
by Jerdon that pink-footed geese are rare. However, it was the first of a 
goodly number of geese to fall to my gun. It was a handsome bird and was 
excellent when roasted. In after days with a duck-gun I killed numbers 
yearly ; and as for Budderuddeen's performances with that gun at geese on 
sandy or muddy flats where I could not get near them ! I never should have 
credited them unless I had seen them, and once at a tremendous long distance 
he bagged five geese at one shot. 

Goose-shooting came by luck. If flocks were seen flying about we 
endeavoured to mark them. I seldom shot them in the water. Generally 
about 8 or 9 a.m. they would feed in the stubbles ; then if I could get a 
quiet cow or buffalo they were to be stalked (or without a cow if the nature 
of the ground admitted of a stalk), or sometimes an attempt was made to drive 
them over me. Sometimes I tried to make a stalking-cow of my Arab horse, 
seldom successfully. Sometimes I made a turban and put on a native cloth ; 
but this, too, seldom answered. At times I had to leave it to Budderuddeen, 
and could only look on through a binocular. 

But it was quite a pleasure to see this man stalk wild geese. Of course he 
was stripped to his lingootee. When geese were feeding in rice-stubble left 
to be burnt, he was certain to get as near as he wished. He used to vanish 
from my sight altogether if the stalks of the stubble or if the grass 
was about nine inches high. If necessary he made a sort of small screen of 
the stubble or grass, which he pushed before him. If the wind was high the 
grass he held as a screen was always waving. He dragged the duck-gun 
behind him somehow as he squirmed like an eel over the mud, or like a 

q2 



228 SPOBT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

snake in the grass. He knew exactly when geese were alarmed and about 
to fly ; and very often when I thought he was quite within shot he would wait 
and shift his position so as to get nearer^ or to get more heads in a row. If 
there was no stubble and no grass^ nothing but bare sand^ he seemed to find 
out gutters or trenches in the sand and to make himself surprisingly 
invisible. At last I would see a flashy and two or more large grey birds 
flopping on the sand^ and then hear the loud bang. 

The barred-headed goose is the commonest at auy rate on the banks of the 
rivers near the junction of the Ganges and Brahmapootra^ and is always to 
be met with there in the cold season and far into the springs sometimes in 
considerable numbers and sometimes in small parties or singly. It is not 
particularly wary^ and I generally stalked a number myself every season. 
Now and then^ if the sands or mudbanks were bare^ I had to make the 
business over to Budderuddeen. 

The grey-lag goose is^ I suppose^ the other goose commonly met with. He, I 
think, goes much more inknd than the first goose. The early mornings in 
Bengal are very often foggy, and I used to hear these birds settling down to 
feed in the rice-stubbles in the fog. They are wary in foggy weather ; but at the 
same time if you know the ground you can make crafty arrangements under 
the curtain of mist, and wait till it clears off, which it generally does at a 
fixed time. If you are patient and know of a hiding-place, and have a good 
shikarry to work them, you may get these geese towards you or over you. 
They are always in large parties. When once fired at and driven away they 
do not return to the same neighbourhood ; but the barred-headed goose, or 
others of the same kind, may be found on the same churs several mornings 
running. 

The nookta goose, which has a peculiar knob on his bill, is a different bird 
in appearance ; some call it a duck. In coloration and appearance it is like 
a huge cotton-teal or Nettapus. I only shot these birds a few times at the 
junction of the Boorigunga or Dacca river with the Megna. In this country 
also I got avocets ; I never killed one elsewhere, though I have seen them. 

I now come to duck-shooting. I always pursued this branch of Indian 
sport with ardour ; but for the first ten years, when armed only with small- 
bores, a few birds contented me ; and for the most part the large flocks kept 
out of reach. However, I had a day's sport with Dr. Jerdon in Pumeah ; 
he had a double-barrelled duck-gun, and on that day the bag was tremendous 
and very varied. He commenced the slaughter by killing a number of 
pelicans at between ninety and a hundred yards distance ; then he killed a 
sayruB crane also at a great distance, and afterwards when we were in boats 
and got among the bluewings, he cut them down in long strings. So with 
his assistance and the Calcutta gunmaker's we planned a double-barrelled 
duck-gun, and in a few months it was made for me in England and sent out. 

This gun was a muzzle-loader, bore No. 8, with long barrels ; it was not 



DUCK-SHOOTING. 229 

nearly so heavy as those duck-guns I see, shorter in the barrels but broader 
at the breech, which are now recommended by Birmingham makers. The 
rib was sunk, and there was no ramrod attached. I used a great heavy 
loading-rod and tight-fitting wads. The usual charge was six drams of coarse 
powder and only two ounces of B.B. shot, or one of Eley's green cartridges 
with the same amount of shot. I once shot a brace of snipe with the gun, 
so it was handy ; it, however, kicked considerably, and would cause the head 
to ache after many discharges. 

There are so many good districts for duck-shooting that I can hardly say 
which is the best : in none will you get it without trouble or without going 
long distances. You must get some one to show you the waters at first ; in 
my case it was invariably the planters who introduced me to my best sport. 
You must make all your preparations beforehand — have your large boats and 
your little boats^ your morahs or stools to sit on, your landing-nets to pick 
up the birds, and your arrangements for watching the birds at different jheels 
all cut and dry before you start. 

The birds will fly in thousands straight away to a distant jheel. There 
your second boats and attendants should be concealed and on the look-out. 
After you have disposed of your first flock, you should at once start by the 
quickest route to your second or third water ; it may be you can ride across 
or you may go on an elephant or you may walk. If your waters are very 
extensive you may go on in the boat you have already used. Anyhow, to make 
a good bag and enjoy a whole day^s sport, you must plan the campaign 
carefully beforehand, or the fun will soon be over. 

There is a day in the spring when the sport of duck-shooting should be at 
its best, when all ducks are on the waters, and yet you will get no sport. It 
is a Hindoo holiday. To my shame I forget the name — it is about the last 
day of the month Phalgoon; but on that day every man and boy of the 
agricultural or fishing class, Hindoo or Mahommedan, every girl under ten 
and every woman above forty-five goes into the shallow waters and jheels 
and muddy and reedy places to fish with what is called a " toppa,'^ a kind of 
bamboo cage without a bottom. There is no place except deep water where 
a web-footed bird could swim that is not disturbed for the whole of this 
holiday. The Europeans all take advantage of this day ; there is no govern- 
ment office open ; but on it you should go hog-hunting or tiger-shooting 
(both sports are then at their best). The ducks must have a day or two to 
settle and congregate together again. 

The first time I came on Bengal ducks in their thousands was when tiger- 
shooting in Maldah. There was a place near an indigo factory from which 
we shot to which ducks came about sunset, and we waited for them ; suddenly 
they seemed to arrive from all quarters at once : as you stood concealed in 
the reeds and bushes they would come plumping into the water close beside 
you and making it splash high in air — ^numbers of different sorts with dif- 



280 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

ferent sounds and cries. But there was no time to pick and choose ; we used 
to load and fire^ and look to the different sorts and species afterwards. The 
light soon faded ; there was no twilight ; the sport did not last long. Every- 
body had a bang at the wildfowl ; every mahout and horse-keeper seemed to 
get hold of a weapon and to kill ducks. Early in the morning we had 
another turn at them^ but did not commit slaughter as at sunset. Soon after 
8 a.m. every bird almost had vanished. 

I have thought that at this place I saw both pink-headed ducks and marbled 
teal. I never visited the place again. Pink-headed duck I afterwards shot 
in numbers in the neighbouring jheels of Pumeah ; but the marbled teal I 
never met with again. 

The bird that is shot in greatest numbers is the blue-winged teal^ the same 
as the garganey. This bird swarms in the spring in all waters where duck- 
shooting is to be got. I found it in the largest flocks I should say between 
Furreedpore and Dacca^ on the sand-banks on the large rivers^ and in the 
bheels of Jessore and Pumeah. 

As soon as I was initiated into the sport I worked it with might and main, 
and reduced it as far as I could to a system. The first thing was to know 
the waters^ and the next was to keep them undisturbed. I have several times 
pointed out how this was to be done. We will suppose the waters to have 
been undisturbed by a shot for two days^ and that the boats and men and 
preparations have been duly arranged and placed^ and that two or three of 
us start for the sport. You must all keep in the same boat^ or^ if in canoes, 
you must keep together. Do not think of separating, else the invariable 
result will be that just as you are about to get the best shot of the season, 
when the wild ducks are half asleep and unsuspecting, and all so crowded 
together that you can scarcely see a foot of water among half an acre of ducks, 
suddenly off goes a shot from the other boat, and your sport for that turn is 
spoilt. 

No, you must keep together. You will approach as craftily as you can — 
dropping down stream if there is a stream, poleing (not rowing) if the water 
is deep ; if it is shallow a man bending low and pushing as he silently walks 
behind. You and your companion will be lying in the front of the boat, 
with your two double-barrelled small-bores cocked, loaded in the ordinary 
manner with No. 5 shot. As you approach, some outside birds will 
rise and fly a few yards more into the body of the flock. You must 
exercise your judgment as to the exact time when you consider you can get 
no nearer, and then at a signal fire the four barrels. Without one instant^s 
delay one of the party shoidd rise and cut two long lanes right through the 
thickest of the flock as they are rising from the water with the duck-gun. 

The water will now be covered with dead and wounded birds. You must 
lose no time : at once load your small-bores, and begin the cripple-chase ; 
shoot every bird that sits with his head up or looks lively again— do not for 



BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 3S1 

a moment think of trying to catch him till you have shot him again. Most 
of the wounded birds sit stupefied for a little time ; in a few minutes they 
recover suflSciently to dive and give trouble. The firing will be hot ; of 
course you will blase at all swimming away as well as those with their heads 
up. The attendants should pick up the birds with landing-nets ; this is a 
much easier and quicker method than grabbing at them with the hand. One 
man managing a canoe behind with another man using a landing net^ in 
addition to a man with a similar arrangement in your own boat^ will soon 
place most of the birds on board. 

While all this is going on your other attendants will have marked where 
the enormous numbers of ducks have congregated again^ and you will plan a 
second attack. 

The above is a fair sketch of the arrangements I tried to carry out in all 
the districts in which I got really good duck-shooting out of boats ; and we 
used to shoot from thirty to sixty or more couples of birds in the day— enough 
to send to all friends within reach, to satisfy your own wants, and to feed all 
the attendants and boatmen. 



Letter No. 57. 

Blue-winged Teal most numerouB. — After disturbing the large flocks, go after small pardes 
and different kinds of Ducks. — The Grey Duck. — ^The Pintail and others. — ^The Pink- 
headed Duck only in Pumeah. — ^The Brahminy Duck. — ^Native Wildfowl-catchers. 

Bt far the greater number of ducks that made up these large bags were the 
blue-winged teal. These birds are always in flocks; some tolerable-sized flocks 
may be seen as early as the end of October, but I have never gone after them at 
that time of the year. In January and February they appear to be most nume- 
rous, and then they fly about in thousands. They are restless in the early 
morning, but after 10 a.m. they congregate and crowd closely together in 
their favourite spots ; these may be on the still waters of the jheels or bheels, 
of which there are so many in Purneah and Jessore, or they may be on the 
shallow expanses of river- water among the sands and mud-banks in the centre 
of the large rivers. Such capital shooting-waters may be found about the 
Ganges and Megna ; the ducks abound, especially in February, all the way 
from Furreedpore to the mouth of the Dacca river. South of this I have 
not met the blue- winged teal in such great quantities. I never shot any on 
the Noakholly churs. In Tippera they are found in the Sylhet and Dacca 
direction^ and small flocks visit the marshes near the eastern hills. To a 



282 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

person unaccustomed to Bengal duck-shooting at its best their numbers are 
quite astounding ; the air seems darkened when the flocks get up^ and the 
rushing sound of their wings can be heard for a great distance. 

After the flocks have been fired at three or four times they will probably 
disappear for some time. If you are shooting on the inland waters you can 
then go round and about the edges and comers, sneaking past the high reeds 
and rushes, and picking up various kinds of ducks. The red-crested pochard 
is considered a prize, and you may shoot a few. The grey duck or spotted 
duck is the largest and best of the birds that reside all the year round in 
Bengal and breed there ; and the greater number of species to be got in 
England are also found in Bengal. The regular wild duck or mallard I never 
met with. The shoveller is common, and when the planters told me that 
mallards were to be got I always found that shovellers were meant. The 
shoveller is the worst duck on table that I know, not nearly so good as the 
whistling-teal or the cotton-teal; consequently I never bothered myself 
about shovellers. 

The grey duck or spotted-billed duck {Anas poecilorhyncha) is a splendid 
bird, common all over Eastern Bengal in suitable places, never very nume- 
rous like the blue- winged teal, but often in parties of from ten to twenty. 
It frequents all the nice pools and jheels near the hog-hunting and deer- 
shooting grounds, and used to breed near the indigo cultivation and, in some 
places, in high rice-crops. It is not very shy, and, when hog-hunting, if a 
small flock of grey ducks was put up it was generally usual to stop the line 
of elephants and let those who were so disposed make a quiet attack on the 
delicious bird. In arranging for a day's shooting at many of those jheels 
which have deep water in the middle and rushes at the side and muddy reedy 
margins outside the reeds, we used to work the grey ducks, pintails, &c. with 
canoes or rafts in the water, till we had driven them all away for the time. 
In this way too we often procured rare ornithological specimens. After this 
we would leave the canoes and take to snipe-shooting in the short grass at 
the very edge of the bheel ; and in this way the whole forenoon from 6 a.m. 
till 1 P.M. was often spent. 

Towards sunset again such places would be visited by ducks of different 
sorts and some pretty flight-shooting could be got. This is the &tyle of 
duck-shooting that most Bengal sportsmen are familiar with ; they take it 
as they come across it, and seldom take the trouble to lay themselves out for 
regular and systematic sport at ducks only, such as I have described with 
reference to blue-winged teal. 

Considering the really magnificent duck-shooting which is to be got in so 
many districts, and the ease and luxury with which it may be worked, it is 
extraordinary how few sportsmen take pains to secure it. There is a place 
between Pumeah and Maldah called Pakydhur-bheel, or the place of birds, 
where I shot nine kinds of ducks in one forenoon. The planter who first 



DUCES. 288 

took me to this place^ which he regarded as the best shooting-water in 
Bengal^ told me that no civilian or military gentleman from headquarters 
had visited the spot for five years. I know I shonld never have missed going 
there at least three times each season^ cost what trouble it might. No sport 
to me with shot-guns (among these I include the duck-gun) was ever so 
satisfactory. Except the trouble of getting to the place there was no draw- 
back whatever. We shot all day^ and fired away quantities of ammunition^ 
having occasionally to clean the guns ; and all this without wetting one^s self 
at all or undergoing any excessive fatigue. This too is a sport which is sure 
to last your time. Most of the ducks are migratory^ and visit Bengal only 
in the end of the cold season. Nothing in the way of preservation is needed ; 
all that is necessary is to keep the water quiet before you go to it and to stop 
any native shikarries from shooting. 

Next to the grey duck the pintail duck is about the best both in size and 
flavour. These ducks are fairly common in rather small parties ; they are 
to be shot both in the jheels and on the banks of the smaU rivers^ and they 
associate with the blue-winged teal on the river sand-banks. When marked 
down they are always made the object of pursuit, and are not very difficult to 
approach ; I never knew them to go about in pairs or singly. 

Wigeon are not plentiful, and I never met large flocks ; but I often got 
one or two when seeking for odds and ends after the large flocks of teal had 
been driven off. As the birds which have been disturbed by the platoon- 
firing in the cripple-chase begin again to settle down in their own separate 
parties you wiD probably watch them with a binocular, and you will see grey 
duck and pintails, wigeon and red-crested pochards, gadwalls and shovellers, 
flying round the jheel and settling in different places. Some of these you 
may covet more than others, or some may be in larger parties ; you will 
take your choice and proceed accordingly ; but be careful not to separate 
and go on difierent beats, for all sport will generally be spoilt if you do. 

The pink-headed duck is a rarity and prize ; I shot numbers in Pumeah 
because I made them a special study, and 1 introduced Jerdon to the first pair 
he ever handled in the flesh. I was resting for the night, when travelling 
slowly with my goods and chattels towards the head station of Pumeah, at a 
small staging bungalow ; before sunrise next morning I was standing, wearing 
only nightshirt and pyjamehs, in the doorway watching two floriken, when a 
party of dark-looking ducks, with rosy-pink feathers under their wings, 
alighted in a tank close by : I seized my gun and went after them ; as I was 
without anything on my head or my feet, I easily got close to them in the 
sedges and shot a pair of ducks quite unknown to me. These were pink- 
headed ducks {Anas caryophyUacea). I never met with them save in Pumeah 
and the neighbouring parts of Maldah : they are not particularly good to 
cat, but they are regular ducks exactly of the Mallard type. I suppose these 
were the rarest ducks I ever shot ; they are resident in Pumeah all the year 



234 SPORT IK EASTERN BENGAL. 

and breed in the grass-jungles. The grey duck^ the whistling-teal^ and tiie 
cotton-teal are idso resident throughout the year; all other ducks are 
migratory. 

Occasionally I came on parties of tufted ducks ; these are considered rare. 

The common teal is found frequenting ponds surrounded with bush-jungle 
or low trees. It does not seem to associate with other ducks. I have often 
shot the birdj but never made it an object of special pursuit. 

It is the fashion to despise the ruddy sheldrake or Brahminy duck. I do 
not know exactly why ; for a young one about December, corn-fed, is very 
eatable if better game is not forthcoming. You may treat him either as a 
duck or a goose : in the former case you will find the following sauce improve 
his flavour, or that of any duck : — ^Take a dessert-spoonful of fresh lemon-juice ; 
the same quantity of Worcestershire sauce well shaken up ; to this add a 
table-spoonful of port wine and as much of the gravy of the bird itself. If 
you think the Brahminy duck is a goose, stuff him with sage and onions ; 
and if you cannot make up apple-sauce, make shift with the fruit of the 
papaw tree. 

The Brahminy ducks come early and stay late. They are seldom in great 
numbers ; but pairs and small parties may be met with all the morning. 
Unless much fired at they can generally be got at ; but they take a deal of 
shot if fired at from any distance. They abound near aU rivers. I shot 
many with the rifle. They are heavy birds and go a long way as food for the 
natives. 

I do not remember to have met with other ducks in Eastern Bengal, and 
my letters, so far as regards bird-shooting of all kinds, are ended. Native 
shikarries will catch you any number of ducks of almost every kind. Teal 
are often kept and fattened for table ; and the other geese and ducks soon 
get tame enough, if pinioned, to remain quiet and domesticated in garden-tanks. 
Hume gives a good account of the way in ^hich they are netted ; but I never 
saw the performance myself. I have seen men catch them by putting their 
heads into earthen pots and moving slowly in the water till they get amidst the 
birds. They then seize them by the legs and draw them under water, putting 
them into a bag or net attached to the waist. No decoy-ducks are used in 
Bengal. 



CBOOODILES. 986 



Letter No. 58. 

Crocodiles. — Veiy destructiye, especially in Pumeah. — ^Accidents. — Out off a man's leg. — 
Sport with Crocodiles killed by Burmese Shikarries. — Shooting Crocodiles. — ^Take baits. 
— Way of catching them. 

There is an inhabitant of the Bengal rivers and jheels which you will often 
see^ sometimes fire at^ and seldom bag ; I mean the crocodile^ called often the 
alligator^ and by the natives *' mugger '* or '' koomeer.'' There are two kinds of 
crocodiles : the long-snouted or gavial^ which is common in both the Oanges 
and the Brahmapootra rivers above the influence of the tides. This creature 
confines itself to the large rivers, and is supposed to be harmless, except to 
fish. I never saw a large one bagged, and shall say no more about this 
species. 

But the koomeer, the commoner crocodile with the snub nose and terrible 
row of teeth, is a dreaded creature, generally sluggish, but sometimes 
aggressive, which is still common in most of the small rivers as well as the 
large, and in the more extensive marshes where there are deep sheets of water, 
and even in smaller tanks. It seems to be equally at home in quick-running 
fresh or saltish waters and in still pools. It is in places exceedingly 
destructive to cattle, and will seize human beings if they incautiously offer 
themselves as a bait. 

At one time the bathing-places near the villages in Backergunge and Jessore 
were surrounded with palisades of bamboo stakes to keep crocodiles away ; but 
of late years the steamers with their noisy paddles seem to have driven crocodiles 
to stiller waters. As few are killed, I know of no other reason to account for 
the fact that they are not so numerous as they were. 

In Pumeah the deep streams and all unfrequented waters are beset with 
them. I have seen half a dozen at a time floating and apparently asleep on 
the surface of the deep pools when shooting ducks. If a gun is fired they 
sink gently down, hardly causing a ripple ; but they are on the look out, and 
should a dog or any animal swim into these places he will be seized, dragged 
under, and nothing of him ever be seen again. The Pumeah planters told 
me that it was certain death to a dog to be allowed to retrieve ducks, and 
that no man was ever allowed to go into the water to fetch birds. A Roman ^ 
Catholic priest, who was passionately fond of swimming and was possessed of 
the notion that no crocodile would seize a man when swimming in deep water, 
persisted in bathing ; he disappeared and his clothes were found on the bank ; 
there is no doubt but that the crocodiles devoured him. At Chittagong, when 
I was magistrate, a middle-sized crocodile seized a man, who beat him off 
with his stick; but he let go his stick and foolishly went into the water 
again for it. This time the crocodile carried him off ; the body was never 



286 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

seen again. At NoakhoUy a crocodile attacked a party of men bathing and 
seized one^ but was beaten off, and the wounded man brought to the 
jail hospital. The doctor^ a young and inexperienced man^ just out from 
England^ and ignorant of the language^ said his leg must be amputated^ and 
that if I would assist him he would do it, though he had never performed 
such an operation. He had plenty of practice afterwards, during the mutiny. 
I agreed, and we read up the instructions in the doctor's medical works that 
night. The man was put under chloroform ; I managed the talking and held 
the femoral artery with my fingers ; the doctor cut off the leg above the knee 
and the man recovered, and we manufactured a wooden leg. He considered 
that as we had saved his life by cutting off his limb we were bound to support 
him for ever, and while I stayed at Noakholly I had to subscribe to his 
maintenance. 

Crocodiles apparently lay eggs in holes near rivers with entrances under 
water. At times they make loud bellowing noises at night, and sometimes I 
was told they could be captured in such holes. I never saw them so caught ; 
but once I saw two enormous fellows killed. When at Bupooshdee a planter 
invited me to see some sport with crocodiles, and of course I was delighted to 
go. This gentleman was the only man I ever saw shoot game with a flint 
gun : he had a nice double-barrelled gun by some crack maker, and I saw 
him kill six snipe running ; this seemed to me a great feat. 

He had secured the services of two Burmese shikarries or professed croco- 
dile-killers^ and had marked the two huge reptiles. Crocodiles have a habit 
of coming out of the deep water in the forenoon and of basking for hours at 
a little distance from the stream on dry land ; and these two crocodiles did 
this regularly. They frequented two places about half a mile distant from 
each other, and boats and weapons had been prepared beforehand. 

The two Burmese shikarries had a curious way of obtaining their livelihood : 
they were professed killers of crocodiles and otters and catchers of kingfishers. 
The feathers of the latter bird are worked up into beautiful ornaments with 
coloured shellac, and much used on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. 
I do not know the exact use made of the otter-skins^ except that there was a 
market for them. Otters are numerous all over Bengal, and kept tame by 
fishermen in the Soonderbunds ; but otter-hunting as a sport is not resorted 
to in India. 

The Burmese located us some distance off in a boat, while they stole very 
quietly forward and reconnoitred. They found no diflSculty in approaching 
sufficiently near to the crocodiles for their purposes. 

The first weapon used was a curious sort of arrow made of a light strong 
shaft, very thin and short and tipped with a barbed point as sharp as a needle; 
to the end of the arrow was attached some very strong but thin line, and to 
the end of this a small bladder. The shikarry discharged the arrow, without 
a bow^ in some very peculiar manner from between the knuckles of the thumb 



CROCODILES. 237 

and forefinger of his left band^ with all the force of his right arm ; the arrow 
pierced deep into the crocodile's body. I believe the tales about adamantine 
scales are aU nonsense^ and that a crocodile's skin is no harder to pierce than 
a deer's. The animal glided quietly into the stream and the shikarries came 
to us in the boat and we poled up and found the tell-tale bladder; the 
shikarry worked this gently till he could judge where the crocodile was. He 
was then stirred up by some hard pokes from spears and went off^ but only 
for a little distance ; we followed and the long spears were thrust into him 
again : on this he rose and came at the boat savagely ; the planter and I 
promptly gave him four bullets and the men in the boat belaboured him with 
poles and hatchets and spears^ and he fled rapidly down stream^ the bladder 
bobbing away after him. The stream was only about six feet deep. When 
he stopped we roused him up again^ and once more he made a feeble attack 
and caught it more heavily than before ; he then gave in, probably he was 
dying, but he took a long time to give up the ghost. The dangerous part 
of the fun for the shikarries now began, for it seems however much the 
crocodile may be wounded he retains for a long time the power of hitting 
with his tail and snapping with his jaws, and it is not easy to manage him 
safely ; howeter, he was pushed into shallow water and a noose put over his 
head and another over his tail, and finally the shikarry with a Burmese dao 
cut his head off, and even then the jaws moved ominously. There was a great 
deal of fun and excitement in the whole thing, and if the boat had upset, 
which nearly happened, while the crocodile was in full vigour the consequences 
might have been serious. 

The management of the second crocodile was exactly like that of the first, 
but the planter and I took it quietly and aimed at the back of the head and 
the junction of the head and neck. The head of the crocodile seems to be all 
bone and teeth, and the brain and spinal marrow take up very little room. 

This was the only occasion on which I ever met with these crocodile-hunters, 
and I never heard of them during twenty years ; but whenever a shot could 
be got at the animal it was taken. I plugged many a bullet into them on the 
muddy banks of the Megna ; generally these were acknowJedged at first by a 
wide opening of the jaws — ^no snapping, they remained open ; then the animal 
slipped into deep water and I never saw him again. Once I quite stopped an 
enormous one for a time, and I went tolerably close to him, he could scarcely 
move, but still he had sufficient life in him to prevent me actually touching 
him ; he, too, at last gave a wriggle and slipped into the river. 

I have often shot and bagged small crocodiles, about six feet long, in jheels 
when shooting from elephants. They took a deal of killing and parted from 
life most reluctantly ; in all cases almost all the mahouts who got down to cut 
off the heads generally managed to receive nasty bites. You never can tell 
how long the power of motion, and consequently of mischief, may remain in a 
dying reptile such as a crocodile or a snake, and you can never be too cautious 



288 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

in allowing your hands to reach near their mouths; they are as hard to 
render motionless as eels. 

The heads are not easily prepared ; the skin and flesh may be removed by 
maceration^ but the teeth drop out^ and can only be retained and fixed in the 
jaws with difficulty. I have seen tremendous heads in the Terandahs of 
gentlemen who cultivated estates in the Soonderbunds. 

A chum of mine at Rajshahye was greatly given to fishings and every 
afternoon^ fine or not^ he might be seen in the rains with rod and line at some 
well-baited ghaut fishing for rhooi and mriga. Just before I left the district 
he discovered a tolerably sized crocodile watching him^ and after some trials 
he persuaded the creature to mouth a dead rhooi^ which was drawn in front of 
him at the end of the fishing-line ; generally the matter ended in the crocodile 
getting the fish off the hooks. I went to see the sport and my chum managed 
to draw the crocodile within a few feet of me ; it then let go and dived. I 
had to leave Rajshahye^ and up to the time of my departure the creature had 
not been actually hooked. 

Crocodiles are very hard to catch and yet they will take baits into their 
leathery mouths. I am told they can be captured by the following plan : — 
Fasten some large and sharp hooks to a strong line by a number of thin^ 
small^ softly twined cords : the object of this is^ that the thin soft cords may 
pass up between the teeth and not be bitten asunder ; a stout cord is either 
divided by the teeth or rejected entirely. The hook or hooks are to be con- 
cealed in the entrails of a sheep or some such animal and then laid on a small 
raft made of plantains^ which is to be set to float about the water; the long 
rope of course is to be made fast to a tree or strong stake. I am given to 
understand that after much moving of the raft and bait the crocodile swallows 
it and thinks nothing of the thin tow about his teeth and sinks to the bottom ; 
plenty of time should be allowed and then the rope may be drawn in. There 
should be a struggle, and if the barbs of the hooks get fixed into the interior 
of the crocodile his capture becomes certain. I, however, never saw this 
operation carried out, and only heard of it during late years, when I had no 
opportunity of testing it. I see no reason to doubt its practicability and 
should be glad to know more about it. 



SNAKES. dd9 



Letter No. 59. 

SnakeB. Terribly destructiye, but to natives only. — ^The Cobra di Capello. No antidote or 
recoTery when a vigorous Oobra has injected his venom. — Catching Cobras. — Mungoose 
and every other animal equally susceptible if really bitten. — Mungoose and Cobra. — Fond 
of deserted outhouses. — ^Move about after sunset — ^How the poison is extracted. — 
Poisoned arrows. 

The change from one reptile to another is easy ; let me direct your attention 
from the crocodile to the snake. The crocodile may kill a few human 
beings in Eastern Bengal yearly^ but snakes certainly kill hundreds^ 
perhaps thousands. All magistrates of districts receive almost daily reports 
of deaths from snake-bites ; some of these reports may be f alse^ a few may be 
in reality murders^ but the number of deaths from snake-bites is most appal- 
ling. I have examined scores of bodies of men^ women^ and children who 
had been killed by snakes. In the rains and inundations these deaths reach 
their maximum. As the waters rise the snakes get washed out of their holes 
and hiding-places and naturally crawl to the dry and high ground ; here the 
native huts are built and the snakes seek shelter in the dwellings. The 
women of necessity come out of their doors just before daylight and touch 
or tread on these animals with their naked feet ; in a moment the deadly bite 
is given^ generally near the ankle ; in an hour or so the woman or man is dead. 

Though so many natives are killed monthly in every district in Bengal^ I 
never could hear of one authenticated case where a European had been bitten; 
probably this is in some degree owing to the fact^ for which I have the unim- 
peachable authority of Sir Joseph Fayrer^ that a cobra's fang is harmless if it 
has to pass through a piece of good English boot-leather ; the poisonous 
venom is expended on the outside of the boot. Two plies of good broadcloth, 
or a layer of broadcloth lined with silk^ are a safeguard ; somehow I should 
prefer a thick English boot, and even then I should decline to give the long 
fang of the Daboia Russellii a chance. I have known him plunge his tooth 
deep into the rind of my hog-spear and leave it sticking there. Perhaps the 
killing of snakes may not be regarded as sport : be that as it may, it was a 
good thing to do ; and though death to snakes was sport to me, so I shall write 
to you some lines on the subject. 

The most dangerous and very common snake all over India is the cobra — 
the '^ cobra di capello/' Nqfa tripudians, the " naga gokurra " of the natives; 
it has also a great variety of other names. From this snake's bite, if the 
snake is full-grown and vigorous and puts his fang into the flesh and injects 
his venom, there is no escape ; death I hold to be certain, except perhaps if a 
bystander should have an axe in his hand and should instantaneously chop off 
the limb a good way above the bite. The venom spreads most rapidly ; all 
antidotes are utterly useless^ 



240 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

You may hear numerous stories of bites which were not fatal; disbelieve 
them all. The snake may not have been a venomous one, its poison may 
have been just expended ; it may not really have bitten with its fangs or 
have injected the venom ; there are various ways in which a snake may have 
apparently bitten a man, and yet have not fairly injected the poison. If the 
poison of a fair-sized vigorous cobra has been injected into a man, that man 
will surely die in a very short time. 

I studied snakes as much as I could and foolishly learnt to catch cobras. 
I was nearly bitten once when looking for birds' nests ; I gave up birds'- 
nesting in India from that moment. In a former letter I mentioned a 
gentleman who was killed by a wild buffalo who threw him into a tree. 
That gentleman was more conversant with snakes of all kinds than any one I 
ever met ; he 'made money by making collections of snakes for savans and 
museums, and understood the catching and killing of them, and how to 
preserve them as specimens and to keep them alive. He taught his nephew 
who was my assistant, and the nephew taught me, thus : — When you come 
on your cobra make him rear up and expand his hood. He does this 
generally quickly enough ; but should he delay, whistle to him, imitating 
the snake-charmers. He will then certainly raise his head ; then with a small 
cane or stick (the ramrod of a gun is as good a thing as any for the purpose) 
gently press his head to the ground (the snake will not object, he seems to 
like it rather) . When you press his head lightly to the ground with the stick in 
your left hand you should seize the snake firmly with your right close behind 
the head, holding his neck rather tightly ; then let go the stick and catch 
hold of the tail. The snake is powerless and you can do what you like with 
him. My assistant generally procured an earthem pot or kulsee, and let the 
snake pass into this ; he stated that snakes always would go into any dark 
place : sometimes he killed the snake after capturing it. He was very careless 
and it was a wonder that he never was bitten. 

When testing measurements in an island of the Megna I disturbed a cobra 
about a yard long, and caught it in the manner described without any 
difficulty. A viUage was near and I sent for a fowl, and applied the cobra^s 
mouth to the fowl's thigh ; it immediately seized the thigh and injected its 
venom with two or three vicious squeezes. I could almost see the poison 
squirted into the bird's leg. The fowl was put on the ground and seemed 
unconcerned at first and pecked up some rice-grains ; it then began to 
stagger, turned round, sat down, fell, and in less than three minutes was 
dead. All this time I held the snake with both hands, and did not much 
like it. I threw him away a few yards, took my gun from an attendant 
and shot the snake. I vowed never to try to catch another cobra, and kept 
the vow. 

The tales about the mungoose being invulnerable to the cobra's bite are 
false, as also is the fable that it runs off and finds a plant which is an 



THE COBRA. 241 

antidote. The mimgooBe {Herpestes), nearly allied to the ichneumon^ and 

resembling a ferrety without the disgusting smell, is a wonderfully active 
little animal, and when engaged in combat with a cobra sets up on its 
hind legs and erects its fur and avoids all the strokes of the snake, which 
very possibly discharges its venom in futile endeavours to seize the sharp 
little mungoose. If, ho'Wever, the cobra can bite the mungoose and inject 
the poison, the mimgoose dies as quickly as any other animal. A mungoose 
is an engaging and amiable pet, and it will be found tame everywhere. 
My bearer at Rajshahye somehow managed to get a small cobra alive into a 
glass bottle, in which there had been preserved fruit ; he brought it to me.' 
I had a tame mimgoose, not much more than half-grown. The snake was 
turned out in an open space and the mungoose at once went at it. The 
snake tried no more to escape, it raised its head and expanded the hood ; 
the mungoose sat up with far all on end, and the two animals kept darting 
at each other almost as if in play ; suddenly the mungoose made a grab at the 
snake, seized it by the head and ran off with it. I caught the mungoose, 
which was generally most gentle ; it let go the snake and bit savagely at 
me ; it then seized the snake and ran into a drain underneath the house : when 
next I saw them the snake's head was gone ; I beUeve the mungoose had 
eaten it. Another mungoose was kept in a neighbduring house; it was 
fastened to a kulsee, or earthem pot, in which it lived, with a string not 
more than a yard long, and was kept at the open dporway. Even when 
thus tied the creature managed to catch and kill a cobra. 

Pigs certainly catch and eat snakes ; I have seen them do it, and when driven 
in herds across the marshy ground where they root, they are said to kill 
all the snakes they meet with. I cannot say that the one I saw eaten was 
a cobra. If a hog can kill a snake with impunity, it must be either that 
he seizes the snake by the head, or that the snake is unable to fix his fangs 
into the pig and to inject his venom. The hide of a hog from the knee 
upwards is hard and flat, almost like a boards and it may be that the cobra 
cannot make an effectual dart, and the venom may be shed outside and 
never injected into the blood. Cobras as a rule do not frequent marshy wet 
ground, they prefer dry. But this is certain, if a cobra is made to bite a pig 
in a tender place, such as the inner side of the thigh, the pig dies as soon as 
9ny other animal. 

Cobras seem to find out unused outhouses and deserted gardens and com- 
pounds. At Tippera I took a house which had long been empty, and I 
put a number of fowls and ducks into the old fowl-house ; the second night, 
about 9.30 p.m., there was a great commotion in the fowl-house and the 
dogs barked. We got lights and went in, and two large cobras, which 
seemed dazed or blinded by the sudden glare, were killed with sticks. The 
only three ducks and several fowls had been bitten and all died very quickly. 
At Mymensing my compound had long been disused, and was full of heaps 

a 



242 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL, 

consisting of mbbish, brickbats^ clods of earthy stomps^ and roots ; these were 
nearly all tenanted by cobras. We killed a great many^ but afterwards I 
suffered no annoyance. 

A cobra is easily killed by a blow from a sticky bnt it writhes about for a 
long time, and even after it appears to be dead, will move and even bite if 
touched ; so be very careful not to handle a freshly killed snake till you are 
certain all power of convulsive movement has disappeared. 

I never saw cobras moving about in sunshine, but as soon as the sun sets 
they are on the move and are very active just before dark. The last ride I 
took on my own Arab in India was round the Dacca racecourse. As I left the 
park-like place, just at the ruined old gateway, a large cobra raised himself 
quite close to my horse^s leg ; it made a wave or half -stroke and sank down and 
glided off; it was a near thing. Next morning I started for England. A 
valuable horse was killed in its stable at Berhampore while I was at 
Bajshahye. 

Cobras do not seem to frequent wet ground, and I saw few when snipe- 
shooting, but I met numbers when quail-shooting ; they often lie in the 
grassy '^ aisles '* which separate the plots of rice from each other, after the 
ground has dried up and there is only dry stubble left. Cobras lay several 
eggs. I have often found snakes' eggs, but to what snake they belonged I 
had DO means of telling. The snakes of the cobra tribe (that is, Naja tripudians 
and Ophiophagus) always raise their heads to the sound of a flute or soft 
whistle ; I do not know why ; other snakes seem to lie still. I have made the 
cobra at the Zoological Gardens, Regent^s Park, raise himself occasionally by 
whistling to him, but not always will he dance to my piping; the plate 
glass in front of the cage is thick, and he may be sleepy and decline to be 
charmed. The snake-charmers of course declare that their snakes have fangs ; 
this is false, the fangs are extracted, pulled out by jerking a piece of tough 
leather after it has been fairly pierced. This has to be done continually, for 
the fangs are reproduced and quickly grow. But the snakemen generally 
keep some snakes with fangs unextracted ; they do not, however, play with 
these ; they are kept for experiments for which you pay. 

The poison is easily extracted ; I saw my assistant extract it often. A piece 
of tough plantain-leaf is bound over a spoon ; the snake is held by the right 
hand, as when caught, and the spoon offered to his mouth with the left. The 
snake bites vigorously through the leaf, and the venom, sometimes more 
than a dozen drops, is shed into the spoon. 

The poisoned arrows with which tigers and leopards are shot are prepared 
from venom thus extracted. A little cotton-wool is saturated with the 
poison and bound with thread on to the barb of the arrow. Sometimes this 
poison is mixed with the juice of certain acrid milky plants and kept in vials, or 
made into powder with dry stuff. The native doctors pretend to keep these 
preparations as drugs, and at times they will sell them. I am not aware that 



THE OPmOPHAGUS. 24S 

the Tenoin, evea if dilated to a great extent, ii of any real medical benefit. 
The poison of the viper m supposed to be used in a common homaeo- 
pathic medicine (lachesis) ; possibly a cobra's venom might be of as much 
benefit. 



Letter No. 60. 

The Opbiophagus. Laigest yenomoug 8nake known. Scarce. I ahoot one. Not known in 
many diBtricts. Feeds on Cobras. Have one fed before me by the snakemen. — ^The 
Daboia. The first I kiUed. The Frenchman kills one with his hands. Sowdaugor 
Mahout catches these snakes. — ^The Bungams. Rather agp^ressive. Eats other snakes* 
— The Kerait — ^The Green Viper. — ^The Python.— Other harmless snakes. — ^Water- 
Snakes. 

The only other snake of the cobra tribe (that is^ a colubrine snake which ex- 
pands its hood) is the ophiophagus {Elaps ophiophaffus)— the hamadryad, the 
" sunkerchor" or " rajnag^' or " snake-king '^ of the natives. This is the largest 
and most powerful venomous snake known in India, and probably in the 
world. It is to all intents and purposes a gigantic cobra of a brownish-green 
or dark olive-green colour, with transverse light-coloured marks at regular 
distances all down its back, without spectacles on its hood. This reptile is 
luckily very scarce ; it reaches a length of about thirteen feet or longer, and 
is thick in proportion. It is a most terrible animal, and is said to be aggres- 
sive, and to attack without being provoked or interfered with, whereas the 
ordinary cobra will always get out of the way if not touched or frightened. 
I once killed an ophiophagus, the only one I ever saw wild. It was at 
Narage in Cuttack. We had come back from a bad morning^s sport and 
were preparing for breakfast a tiffin, when I heard a tremendous uproar and 
cries of " Samp ! Samp V^ I caught up a shot-gim and rushed out of the door 
of the bungalow, and there I saw a monster of a snake quietly gliding across 
some laterite rock ; it was only about twenty yards ofi^, and I gave it the best 
part of a charge of No. 5 shot. Its struggles and contortions were tremendous, 
but it was powerless to get away ; in course of time its struggles ceased, 
and after poking it about for some time with a long bamboo I judged that it 
was dead and presently handled it. An Irish firiend standing in the doorway 
all the time swore by all his gods that if I brought the brute near to the 
bungalow he would shoot me ; he was terribly excited, so I took the snake 
to a distance to examine and skin. It was fully thirteen feet long and 
extremely thick and powerfol ; the hood expanded to nearly a foot. The 
fangs were not very long, and the points only just protruded beyond the 

r2 



244 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

poison-bags^ which were exceedingly large. I suppose a blow from a stick 
might have killed such a snake. I should^ howcTer, have been sorry to have 
tried the experiment ; the chances were that the snake would have bitten a 
man before he could have been disabled. 

How the snakemen manage to capture this monster alive I do not know^ 
but I have constantly seen him with them and have studied him. The men 
at Dacca had two : they said they came from the Soonderbunds ; but I doubt 
it^ because neither native nor European connected with the Soonderbunds 
could tell me they had ever seen one wild, and the Deputy Collector I have 
before referred to as so conversant with snakes was stationed near the Soon* 
derbunds and could never hear of one. They are founds but rarely^ all along 
the hills on the frontiers of Eastern Bengal. They do some good^ as apparently 
they feed chiefly on cobras. I arranged with the Dacca snakemen to show 
me how they were fed. I received notice that a king-snake was hungry and 
about to be fed^ so he was brought to my house in his basket. The snake- 
man first secured a fair-sized cobra out of another basket in his left hand. 
This snake he said had his fangs entire : this of course was a lie. Another 
snakeman piped and the great ophiophagus raised its head and spread its 
hood. The man then took hold of it behind the head with his right hand 
and offered the cobra with his left. The ophiophagus at once seized the 
cobra and the two snakes were let go. The cobra writhed and struggled and 
bit the larger snake as best it could about the jaw, but was soon overpowered 
and gradually began to disappear head foremost doWn the larger snake's throat. 
The snake seemed to know his keeper. I approached and the ophiophagus 
at once began to disgorge the cobra. How he managed this with teeth all 
pointing backwards I cannot tell. I retreated to a distance. The cobra was 
then entirely swallowed, and the big snake settled himself again comfortably 
in his basket. This entertainment took up more than half an hour. I have 
no more thoroughly reliable information to give about Elaps ophiophagus. 

The next most venomous snake is a most beautiful viper {Daboia RusseUii), 
Russell^s viper — the " tic polonga " of Ceylon, and the " bora '^ of the Ooriahs 
and Bengalees. I constantly killed this snake. My first introduction to him 
was at Rajshahye in early days. I must premise that when I was in India 
Sir J. Payrer^s book on the ' Thanatophidia of India ' was not written, I 
had no access to good works for reference, and my knowledge was obtained 
from the Deputy Collector above referred to, his nephew (my assistant), and 
natives, who, as a rule, are well versed in snake matters. 

I had left the shooting-party and the elephants and ridden alone after a 
hog, which I killed ; as I was returning to the shooters I came across a 
beautiful snake, nearly four feet long, spotted with leopard-like spots of a 
bright chocolate colour. I rode up and pinned him to the ground with my 
hog-spear. The snake remained motionless. I did not like to put my foot 
on him, so went ofP for a pliant stick ; with tUs I went to him, leading the 



SOWDAUGOR CATCHES SNAKES. 246 

horse with the left hand and holding the stick in my right. As I came near^ 
the snake^ which had only been held by a thin bit of skin, got loose and was 
gliding away. I dropped the sticky caught hold of the spear^ and made a 
dab with it at the snake ; this time the spear passed through the thick part 
of the body not much in front of the tail. In an instant the viper struck at 
the bamboo spear-shaft with such force that his long fang was broken off and 
remained sticking in the shaft. He was securely pinned to the ground^ and 
I had no difficulty in beating him about the head and killing him. The 
snake was tied up with a '^ lot ^' or creeping-plant and taken to the tents. 
The bearer declared it was a bora^ a most deadly snake^ and of the sort which 
had bitten and killed the judge's bearer a few days before. This I doubt^ 
because we all understood that the bearer had been bitten by a cobra. 

However^ shortly after this a daboia was discovered in the bath-room 
attached to the bungalow at the indigo-factory occupied by Mons. Deveria^ 
the Frenchman I referred to as having killed a tiger on foot. This gentleman 
went into his bath-room^ saw the snake^ instantly seized it by the tail^ whirled 
it round his head^ and struck it two or three times on the brick floor; this 
completely smashed the snake's head. I saw its body^ and it was undoubtedly 
a daboia. 

My mahout Sowdaugor was a great snake-catcher and very reckless. He 
too had been taught by that Deputy Collector when at Mymensing. I never 
saw him press down the snake with a rod as I have described^ but he caught 
numbers of snakes of all sorts and sent them alive to the Deputy Collector. 
His movements were so rapid^ and generally in jungle and with his back 
to me^ that I never exactly made out why he did not get bit. He used to 
jump off his elephant^ leaving the animal to my guidance ; in a moment 
afterwards he had the snake's neck in his hand. He said he caught them by 
their tails^ swung them under his armpit^ and held them there while he slipped 
his hand up to the back of the head. He then gave the snake some of his 
clothing, to amuse itself with, and on which to expend its venom. He then 
wrapped the reptiles up in loose cloth and took very little trouble with them. 
I have seen him catch snakes scores of times, and know how he managed 
after he ODce had got his hand to their heads ; but, as I said, I never quite 
understood how he managed that part of the feat. I rather discouraged him, 
as I did not like the idea of having living venomous snakes at large, or even 
in earthem pots or boxes. At the same time Sowdaugor received good 
prices for his snakes. The young of this snake, the daboia, are born alive, 
and Sowdaugor told me he had at times come on parcels of a dozen live little 
daboias at once. I never saw any of these happy parties. 

Another snake which is far from uncommon and is also very venomous, 
though not quite so bad as the three above mentioned, is the bungarus 
{Bungantsfasciatus). I know of no familiar English name. It is the '^ sankni " 
of the natives. 



246 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

This is a powerful thick snake^ which can never be mistaken; it has a 
ridge along its back^ and its coloors are in alternate rings of blue-black and 
light yellow. It is very poisonous^ and I think more common or at any 
rate more often seen in the rains than the cobra. It is rather aggressive, 
and in the inundations it gets on to the embankments and roads and elevated 
pieces of land, and will readily bite persons approaching it. I heard a noise 
in a ditch at NoakhoUy, outside my compound, and found a bungarus with 
a snake nearly as large as itself in its inside ; the tail was just hanging out 
of the swallower's mouth. I struck with a stick and killed both snakes, for 
the swallowed one was by no means dead, and writhed aboiit even after I 
pulled him out from the other's mouth ; the <me snake was very little larger 
than the other. 

The second night of my stay in my own house at Mymensing the bearer 
brought in a large bungarus dead or quivering, fixed in a cleft bamboo. His 
face was as white as a black man's could be. He was much alarmed, and 
thought the snake's partner would to a certainty come and bite him in the 
night ; so I told him to sleep in the verandah upstairs ; but we never saw 
another snake of this kind about the house. 

There is another smaller venomous snake of the class Bungarus {Bungarus 
Cderuleus) ; this is common, and is known as the ''kerait." It is much smallex 
than the last described, of a brown colour, with dirty white transverse 
marks on its body ; it is very venomous, and is apt to come about dwellings. 
I once killed one at Bajshahye, under a piano at which a lady was singing ; 
it caused a good deal of commotion. These five snakes are the really deadly 
snakes of Eastern Bengal known to me ; there appear to be several others 
in Upper and Central India, but I never met with them. 

There is another poisonous, but not deadly, snake I met with at times. 
A green viper, with a very broad head and a stripe along its sides {TVime- 
resurus), I know of no common name for this snake except '^ green snake." 
It is rather common among thatching-grass, especially when it has been cut, 
and we found it when beating for quails and hares. One bit a man once 
when I was out : he suffered much pain, and was ill for some days ; but 
the doctor said he would soon be all right, and he recovered. I never heard 
of a death from the bite of the green snake. 

I have often met with pythons when beating up heavy jimgles. These 
huge snakes are commonly called boa constrictors, and grow to an enormous 
size, and are sometimes of the circumference of a man's leg. Most that I 
have seen have been long, but not nearly so bulky. At the foot of the Assam 
Hills I once killed two pythons at one shot with No. 5 shot. They are not 
venomous, but are destructive to small quadrupeds. A planter at Pumeah 
told me that he once turned a wild sow out of some grass with a litter of 
young ones. A large python made a dart, as the planter thought, at one of 
the squeakers and enfolded it in his coils. The planter then shot the snake. 



HARMLESS SNAKES. 247 

As it uncoiled it appeared that it had caught two young pigs in its deadly 
grasp; they were both quite dead, though the snake had only that instant 
enfolded them. 

You will meet with several kinds of harmless snakes in the course of your 
sporting career. The dhamin (Ptyas mucostis) is the most common. You 
will find him coiled up on tufts of herbage in the best uncultiyated spots 
for snipe-shooting in autumu. In the Doorga Poojah holidays I always 
came on some lying on the tops of thick bushes ; they seem to live in or 
near wet swampy ground. 

There is a long thin chocolate snake that gets into rooms, and into Venetian 
blinds, and about one's boots. I do not know its name; it is not very 
uncommon. Besides this there are some pretty little snakes common in the 
grass. All these are said to be harmless by such Europeans as know any- 
thing about them. The natives, as a rule, declare every snake to be deadly. 
I advise you to play no tricks with snakes ; a rare but dangerous snake might 
at any time be accidentally met. 

The freshwater snakes are innocuous, but the sea-snakes are most deadly. 
One officer of Her Majesty's navy was bitten by a small sea-snake, and 
though the teeth are so small as to be almost invisible, and though the 
punctures could not be seen, death soon ensued. These snakes are unknown 
to me ; they are brought to shore in numbers in nets by the fishermen on 
both sides of the Bay of Bengal, and are found in the salt nullahs of the 
Soonderbunds and in the tidal estuaries of the large rivers. They are fiiUy 
described in Sir J. Fayrer's work, and I have seen several in bottles. They 
all have flat tails, and I can tell you very little more about them, for I never 
saw one alive. 



Letter No. 61. 

Jackal-hunting. Too slow for real sport. Pleasant amusement if fogs do not interfere in the 
early mornings. Sport with hounds. — ^Foxes. Useless for sport, feed much on doves. 
— Hares and coursing. — Jackal's bites. — ^Mad Jackals and dogs. — Immediate application 
of lunar caustic generally a preventive of subsequent hydrophobia. — ^Fishing not suiR- 
dently learnt by me. — Conclusion. 

I HAVE written to you about sport with small shot and with bullet, from the 
howdah and with the spear ; but I have said nothing about sport with hounds. 
But fox-hounds and greyhounds are both used occasionally in Eastern Bengal, 
though the sport shown cannot be compared with the fun that is carried on 
under the same names in England. 

Fox-hunting or hunting with fox-hounds in Bengal means the hunting of 



248 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

the jackal. The jackal^ though larger than a fox^ is not nearly so fast^ 
and he has no power of keeping up his running for any length of time. Packs 
of hounds are annually imported into Bengal from England. There is always 
one pack hunted from Calcutta^ and generally one or two more are got up at 
some districts. The sport gives nice exercise in the mornings^ and it is 
extremely pleasant and reminds one of home to hear the cheery cry of the 
pack and to gallop after hounds even for a short time. But jackals cannot 
really run. Scent is usually bad ; if it is not^ the English hounds, if in good 
health, run into their game in ten minutes or so if the run takes place in 
open country. Most commonly the jackal sticks to interminable villages, 
from which he cannot be dislodged, and where there are so many jackab on 
foot in the course of a mile or two that hunting (according to English ideas) 
is impossible. Where the country is open, as, for instance, where there are 
wide plains interspersed with patches of grass, the jackal is too slow to live 
before the English fox-hound. I carried the horn and hunted a pack of fox- 
hounds at one time or another for six seasons in the districts of the twenty- 
four pergunnahs — Jessore, Dacca, and Mymensing. The best sport was got 
in indigo-grounds. Scent was best after those refreshing storms which so 
often come about sunset, and next morning generally hounds ran well. There 
was one way in which occasionally we got about thirty minutes^ galloping ; 
that was when the jackal just managed to make good his entry into some 
small detached jungle, and when the cry of the hounds started a fresh jackal 
away from the further side. If the pack was then judiciously lifted and 
quickly laid on to the fresh jackal, the hunt went on without a cheeky and 
everybody was delighted, especially those who were not up to the trick. 
This manoeuvre is of course terribly contrary to the laws of English fox- 
hunting; and yet you will hardly believe me when I say that I saw it perpetrated 
by one of the best sportsmen of the Pytchley hounds at the famous covert of 
Crick, when Mr. Villiers was master and Charles Payne huntsman. But I 
kept counsel, and neither master nor huntsman knew of it. 

Fogs in the early morning in the pleasant cold season in January and 
February interfere greatly with hunting : in the fog you cannot hunt, after it 
rises there is no scent. A very sporting and rich planter at Dacca, after much 
conversation with me about hunting jackals with English fox-hounds, thought 
that large beagles would answer, and he imported about ten couple ; we took 
them out with about four couple of f ox-hoxinds which had been kept through 
the summer in India. Hounds kept in India in the plains throughout the 
hot weather deteriorate greatly in pace and powers of scent. We drew a very 
nice standing crop and a jackal got well away unseen and without clamour. 
The little hounds made the most charming music and ran very merrily ; in 
about ten minutes we were running merrily across an open plain, and we ran 
from scent into view. Alas ! it was all over ; as soon as the harriers or beagles 
saw what a huge beast they were after they threw up all chase, came to my 



JACKALS AND FOXES. 240 

horse's heels^ and nothing could induce them to run jackals again. The 
old fox-hounds ran into this jackal easily^ and I did all I could to encourage 
the little hounds, but failed. 

In a new country jackals take to the open ; but after a season, when a 
number have been killed by hounds, according to my experience, as soon as 
the experienced jackals hear the sound of hound and horn they at once go to 
ground. There are so many jackals that hunting about villagesis almost a farce ; 
and if you have really wide plains with detached jungles scattered over them 
the best way is to send the field in all directions as soon as it is light, or in 
the fading moonlight if possible, to view the animal. When a jackal is 
viewed no noise should be made ; but intimation should be given quietly to 
the huntsman, who will then lay his hounds on the trail. 

It is no use going near the carcase of a dead cow or animal in the early 
morning ; any jackal near it is so gorged as to be unable to run. 

The meets of fox-hounds for jackal-hunting take place at daybreak. The 
hounds are sent on in the dark either on wheels or in couples. The sport is 
popular : early rising is the rule in India, and subscriptions are generally 
easily got up ; the sport ends before 10 a.m., for two reasons — the sun gets 
hot and then scent fails ; officials can get back in time for office- work. I 
wonder hunting a drag or expeditions against hog-deer are never organized; had 
my spare time not been wholly devoted to hog-hunting, or had the latter sport 
been unattainable, I think I should have got up the hunting of hog-deer with 
fox-hounds. There were very many countries where it could have been 
attempted and the hog-deer would not so readily have retreated to the villages. 

Foxes are common in most districts — not in NoakhoUy or Chittagong. 
But the Bengal fox is a pretty little pet, not so heavy as a hare, a light grey 
in colour, with beautiful brush and ears ; he leaves no scent, and only runs 
in rings, unless pursued by one greyhound. Two English greyhounds are 
too much for this small animal ; but if one greyhound is set after him alone 
the fox's wonderful power of turning saves his life for a little while^ and he 
may reach his earth or some place of safety. In the early morning these 
foxes may be found in the light crops, in mustard, and especially in the flax 
or linseed which is grown for oil. 

When first I went to Mymensing several colonies of foxes lived under the 
houses and offices in the station ; it was pretty to see them playing in the 
evenings. They cared nothing for ordinary dogs ; but after coursing hares 
came into fashion and swift English greyhounds were introduced the poor 
little foxes had a bad time of it and disappeared. 

I once tried to find out what these foxes fed upon. I knew several of their 
earths in high sandy spots, and I was astonished to find that they fed appa- 
rently almost entirely on doves. Doves are very common ; but as they roost 
in trees and are active and wary, it was curious that the little fox should be 
able to catch these birds in such numbers. 



260 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

Hares are numerous in some districts and scarce in others ; but I believe 
that they are much more common than is suspected. I never met any nor 
heard much of them when shooting snipe and quail at Jessore; but no sooner 
were fox-hoands introduced than hares turned up in nearly every village. At 
Mymensing they were common^ and in some of the sandy churs covered with 
light growth of tamarisk they positively swarmed. Their flesh is dry and 
they are poor when roasted, and Indian cooks do not know how to make 
proper hare-soup. 

In the indigo-lands of Mymensing they were numerous, especially where a 
low flowering shrub, with a flower like heliotrope, grew ; and here we used to 
have fair sport with greyhounds. The hares were hard to beat out, so I intro- 
duced elephants when these elephants had no other work to do ; the hares 
apparently dreaded the feet of these huge creatures and at once took to the 
open. In this way I have seen a dozen hares coursed and killed before 
10 A.M. ; but good English greyhounds are too fast for the hare of Eastern 
Bengal. 

A jackal bites severely, and every time the hounds killed one some got so 
badly bitten that they could not be used for some days ; and with our limited 
number of hounds this was a serious matter. I had the end of my hunting- 
crop covered with deer-skin, and as soon as a jackal was run into I dismounted, 
and giving the jackal the end of the hunting-crop to bite, I drove a knife 
into his heart and opened out the wound. This at once killed the animals, 
who were given to shamming, and often got up after being left for dead ; at 
the same time hounds were protected and we did not lose the use of them. 

Jackals go mad occasionally and cause great loss of life. I have known 
instances where several persons were bit by them before they were killed. 
Once, at the head station of NoakhoUy, a mad jackal bit a great number of 
persons, men and women ; the men were all cauterized immediately by the 
civil surgeon, and none were affected by the bites ; but two women who were 
not cauterized died of hydrophobia. In my own experience, and I knew of 
a number of cases both amongst Europeans and natives, cauterization with 
lunar caustic prevented evil consequences, and in many where cauterization 
was not resorted to death from hydrophobia ensued. It is advisable to carry 
a few remedies and medical appliances always with you on all shikar expe- 
ditions, such as lunar caustic, quinine, cholera medicine, bandages, and 
surgical needles. If no caustic is at hand a little gunpowder should be 
squeezed into the wounds made by the teeth ; a little cone of powder should 
be made above this and fired off. The sooner cauterization is performed the 
better. 

Dogs often go mad. I had to shoot the best pointer I ever had and also a 
hound at Mymensing, and I have known of many instances amongst the 
dogs of friends. As soon as any sign of madness is perceived, and there is no 
more marked symptom than a change in the tone of the bark, the dog should 



CONCLUSION. 251 

be kept separate ; if after this farther signs show themselves the dog should 
be at once shot. 

Pointers^ spaniels, and terriers live fairly enough in Bengal if carefully 
treated, kept out of the sun's heat as much as possible, and fed properly ; but 
there is not enough use for them in the sports of Eastern Bengal to warrant 
my writing about them. 

Fishing is a legitimate sport, and is carried on by its votaries chiefly in 
ponds. Fish of great size are caught by rod and line ; but it is a sport with 
which I am not conversant and therefore not competent to give instruction 
upon. On the confines of Sylhet I have heard that great sport is to be 
obtained with mahseer fish; but I never saw any of it and know no 
particulars, and believe there is no mahseer-fishing elsewhere in Eastern 
Bengal. 

I believe I have now told you all I know about sport in this part of India, 
from a jack snipe to a rhinoceros. My letters have been strictly confined to 
the districts I have mentioned, with the exception of some notes on sport in 
Cuttack. The sport in more Western Bengal probably may be carried on 
differently. There are other animals to be met with — the gour, the neelghye, 
and the wolf ; of the pursuit of these I have written nothing, and I have 
confined my remarks to matters of which I was personally cognizant. Hence 
it may seem that these letters are too egotistical ; but it could scarcely be 
otherwise, as in a great deal of my sport I was alone. I have also avoided 
giving hearsay tales. Whenever I have written about what I have not 
seen, I have stated the fact. For the most part I have restricted myself 
to the events which occurred before my own eyes; many would have 
been entirely forgotten but for the diary which I always kept. Sport in 
Bengal, if strict temperance is followed, is health- giving and cheering; it 
made my long sojourn in India bright, and the memories of the hunting and 
shooting parties, and of the many good fellows who joined in them — alas ! 
how many have already joined the majority — are most pleasant to look back 
upon. May you find as much satisfaction, enjoyment, and pleasure in the 
sports I have described as I did. — Vale ! . 



POSTSCEIPT. 

After these letters were in the press, I had the good fortune to obtain 
from Mr. Lionel Inglis, the gentleman who drew the sketch of the spearing 
of a leopard, a promise that he would draw a scene of a real scrimmisige with 
a tiger, and a picture of an old blue boar fighting, as occurred at Tippera. 



262 SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 

These two sketches are therefore added to those referred to in the letters ; and 
I beg to express my warm thanks to Mr. Inglis and also to Mr. Richard P. 
Jenkins, of my own service, who allowed me to copy two other hog-hunting 
pictures. These additions to my work, from sportsmen who hare handled 
spear and gun in Bengal, have added greatly to the value of the book, and 
will, I beliere, be allowed, by all readers competent to judge, to be strictly 
truthful representations of events which, though most exciting, are quite 
common to all who have enjoyed the sports to which these letters refer. 



INDEX 



AND 



GLOSSARY OF INDIAN WORDS. 



-^"G^ 




^9^ 



AocidentA from tigers, 158 ; firom leopards, 
Letter 60; to horsee, 68^ 59, 68; to 
men, 115, 159, 178. 

Alligators, 235. 

Ameers of Scinde, 157. 
Amlah," native clerks. 

Antelopes, 212. 

Arab horses, 88. 

Arsenical soap, 109. 

Axis maculatus^ 209. 

poreinus, 204. 

Backergunge, 114. 

'< Badger,'' the horse, 60. 

Badgers, 193. 

Balam boats, 118. 

Bamboo spear-shafbs, 42. 

Barking-deer, 21 1 . 

Battery, 96. 

Bears, 198. 

Beaters, 182. 

Beating, 67. 

Bees, 145. 

'^ Bheel," a swamp with deep water in it. 

« Bhot atcha," all right. 

'^ Bison,*' mistaken name for Bos gauros. 

Bittern, 223. 

Boats, 102. 

Boat travelling, 105. 

Bora, 244. 

Borudhan, 17. 

Boys as beaters, 17. 

Brahmapootra churs. Letter 87. 

Budderaddeen shikarrv, 2nd Letter H 

fibique. 
Buffaloes, Letter 41. 



Bnfialoe riding, 166. 
Bullets, 97. 
Bunsee river, 141. 
Burrin, 112. 

Cabuli horses, 41. 
Calcutta sport, 7, 66. 
Gamp equipage, 99. 
Camps, 100. 
Cane-brake, 186. 
Canoes, 17. 
Cape horses, 88. 
Carriage horses, 102. 
Cenma aristoteUs, 203. 

maculatus, 209. 

pordnus, 204. 

Charcoal, 107. 

Charges of ammunition, 18, 186. 

*' Chur," alluvial land. 

Cobra, Letter 59. 

Cockbum, 45. 

Compass, 109. 

CooMng, 106. 

Coolen, 219. 

Coss-boats, 102. 

Cost of elephants, 87 ; of sport, 110. 

Costume for snipe-shooting, 119. 

Country-bred horses, 39. 

Country will change as regards sport, 186. 

Coursing, 260. 

Cranes, 219. 

Cripple-chase, 231. 

Crocodiles, 285. 

" Cummerbund,'' waist-doth. 

Curlews, 222. 

Cuttack, Letter 40. 



254 



SPORT IN EASTERN BENGAL. 



Dahoya RutaeUuy 244. 

^^ Dawk," a trayelling stage. 

Deaf hogs, 71. 

Deer, Letter 62. 

Destruction by leopards, 131; by snakes, 

289; by tigers, 181. 
Distance for shooting game, 96. 
Distances for sport, 109. 
Districts, sporting, Letter 4 and p. 29. 
Dogs, 251. 

*^Doorga Poojah," native holiday, 101. 
Ducks, Letter 67. 
Duck-gun, 228. 
Dull bheels, 87. 
" Duflserah," native holiday, 101 . 

Elephants, delicate, 89; diseases of, 89; 

males, 83; "must," 83 ; price of, 83: 

purchase of, 83 ; tusks, 83. 
E2:pen8e of sport, 110. 

Ferries, 76. 

Firing jungle, 136. 

First hog, 44; tiger, 112. 

Fishing, 261. 

Floriken, 216. 

Fogs, 248. 

Food of tigers, 124 ; for elephants, 88. 

Foxes, 249. 

Fox-hounds, 248. 

Gabsara chur, 146. 
Game birds, 213. 
Geese, 227. 
Gous-deer, 206. 
Guddela, 95. 
Guddy, 94. 

" Hallal-kur," to cut an animal's throat in 

Mahommedan fashion. 
" Hank at Cuttack," a jungle drive, 161. 
Hares, 260. 
Herons, 223. 
ffiU-forests, 136. 
Hog-hunting, Letters 10 to 19. 
Hog in tank, 66. 

Horses for hog-hunting. Letter 12. 
Howdah, 91. 
Howdah-ropes, 96. 
Hunysunkur mile, 60. 



Instruments, surgical, 250. 
Inundations, 160, 163. 
Islands in Megna river, 33, 70. 

Jackals, 249. 

Jack snipe, 20. 

" Jemmadar of Chuprassies,'' head of native 

personal attendants. 
'' Jhoom,'' first forest cultivation, 177. 
Jungle-fowl, Letters 44, 45, 46. 
Jungles, 134. 

KaUj, 180. 

" Ealim," a blue waterhen, 223. 
Kerait, 246. 

'' Khora," the watercock, 224. 
<' Khubber," information ; « teek khubber," 
reliable information. 

Landlords, as zemindars, Letter 26; &s 

planters, 29, 105. 
Leisure for sport, p. 9. 
Leopard-shooting, Letter 49. 
Leopards, destruction done by, 131 ; size of, 

202. 
Lepus hispiduSf 142. 
*^ Lingootee,'' a rag of waist-cloth. 
Liquor, 19. 
Loins, disease of horses', 35. 

" Mahout," elephantrdriver, 85. 

Management of beaters, 18 ; of parties, 99. 

Mandar," a tree. 

Man-killer, 126. 

Maps, 5. 

" Mughs," Arracanese, 71. 

Mungoose, 241. 

" Nazir," high native executive officer. 
'* Nullah/' watercourse. 

*' Oomedwars," persons hoping for patron- 
age. 

Paceof hogs, 48. 
« Panch Tikree," 139. 
Panthers, 196. 
Partridges, 213. 
Payment of beaters, 184. 
Peafowl, 210. 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY. 



256 



'' Pergfannah/' a small division of coontiy. 
*' PhafiBun,*' quicksand, 145. 
Pigeons, 180. 
Planten, 29, 105. 
Ployer, 224. 
Police, 160. 
Polyplectron, 181. 
'' Ponk," deep mud. 
Ponky nullah, 55. 

Preservation for sport, SO, 178; of trophies, 
109. 

Qualifications for a shikarrj. Letter 2 ; for a 

mahout, 86. 
Queen's hirthday sport, Letters 8, 9. 

Rafts, 225. 

Receipts for cooking quail, 215 ; snipe, 20. 

Rhinoceros, Letter 47. 

Rice-grounds, 5. 

Riding hogs, 49 ; huffidoes, 169 ; deer, 204; 

in svTampj ground, 55. 
Ropes for howdah, 95. 
** Rouge-et-noir," an Arah horse, 77. 

Salt lands of Noakholly, 81 ; of Tumlook^ 
87. 

Scinde Ameers, 157. 

Scouts on trees, 125. 

'< Seilahee," disastrous flood. 

'^ Shikastee,'' hreaking away of land into 
rivers. 

Shooshung hills, 137 ; Rajah, 22. 

Short spear, 51. 

Shouting, 25. 

'^ Sirdar," head man. 

Size of hogs, 27; of tigers, 116; of leo- 
pards, 202. 

Snakes, Letter 59. 



Snipe, Letter 5. 
Soonderhunds, 115. 
Sore hacks, 90; eyes, 89. 
Spears, 41. 
Spotted deer, 209. 
Stabling horses, 103. 
Swamp-deer, 24, 210. 

« Tal tree," a kind of pahn. 

Temperance, 19. 

Tent Club, 65. 

Tents, 98. 

Throwing spears, 51. 

Tigers, Letters 28 to 40 ; on elephants, 161 ; 

on trees, 163; shooting on foot, 157; 

five in one day, 151. 
Tiger cubs, 158. 
Tikree, 189. 

Time for snipe-shooting, 15. 
Toldoodung, 205. 
Torrens's party, 56. 
Travelling at night, 8. 

Villages deserted, 34, 136. 

Vipers, 244. 

Visits to Zemindars, 104. 

Waler horses, 39. 
Wasps, 121. 
Water, 100, 107. 
Wet night in camp, 26. 
Wild cattle, 174. 
Wildfowl, Letter 54. 
WUd geese, 227. 
Woodcock, 183. 
Wounds, 53. 

" Zemindar,'' landholder, 105. 



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BIOLOGIA CENTRALI-AMERICANA, 

Edited by F. D. GODMAN and O. SALVIN. 



IJndsb this title is being pubHahed a series of Quarto YolumeB upon the Faima and 
Flora of Mexico and Central America — i. e. the whole of Mexico from the valleys of the Hio 
Grande and Gila on the norths the five Central-American States of Guatemala, Honduras, San 
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the present work. In addition to these materials, the Editors propose that all specimens 
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BIOLOGIA GENTRAU-AMERIGANA Ccontinued). 

The Editors have been fortunate in obtaining the cooperation of many Zoologists 
in the Zoological part of their work. The different subjects, so far as at 
present arranged, have been undertaken as follows : — 

MAMMATiTA, Bj JSdwaxd U, Aunon, F.L.a 
A VE8. 67 OsBBBT SiLTiir and F. DuOiin OoLuut, 

BEFTIUA. ■\ 

AMPWmTA , B7 Dr. A. OuHTHBR, F JLGL, Keeper of the Zodogioal Department, 

PISCES. 

MOLLU8CA (Land and Freshwater). B7 Dr. B. ton ICiBmrs. 

CRUSTACEA (Freshwater Malaoostnusa). By Prof. T. H. Hvxlit, LL.D., P.BJ3. 

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COLEOPTERA. B7 J S. Balt, H. W. Batib^ FJl.a, G. 0. Ohampioh, Ber. H. S. 
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HETEBOOBBA. By Hubibt Dbucb, F.L.S. 
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NEX7ROPTERA. By B. M'Laohlan, F.Bii. 
ORTHOPTERA. By H. db Savssubb. 
RHYNCHOTA. By W. L. DierANT. 



The BOTANICAL portion is entirely in the hands of Mr. W. B.ffEMSLET.AZJS. 

'^ MeasiB. GoDMAN and Salvin, the editors of the work, are to be con^tulated on this 
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is now in the ^tish Museum of NatunJ HiBtory at l^uth Kensington.'^— iVbturtf. 



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THE FOBBES MEMOBIAL VOLUME. 

TS MEMOBIAM. The collected Scientific Papers of 

the late WILLIAH ALEXANDEB FOBBES, ILA^ FelUw of St. John's 

College, Cambridge, Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at Charing Cross Hospital, 
Prosector to the Zoological Society of London. Edited by F. E. Bbddabd, M.A., 
Prosector to the Zoological Society of London. With a Preface by P. L. BcLkTSEf 
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Containing 26 Plates (some Coloured), etohed Portrait^ and numerous Cuts* 

thidk royal 8vo, sewn, £1 7s. Od. 



*' Thb death of Alfred Henry Garrod at the early age of thirty-three was a great 
misfortune to the cause of Zoology in this country. But that his diBtrnguished 
successor, William Alexander Forbes, a man fiill of vigour and in the best of health, 
should have suddenly succumbed to the influence of a pernicious climate at the age 
of twenty-eight, was perhaps a still more severe blow, and one that will long be felt 
by the naturalists of the present day. As regards natural history at least, if not in 
some other matters, Forbes was a universal genius. Of the whole zoological series 
he had an enormous knowledge, ranging from one end of the animal kingdom 
to the other. Possessed of a most retentive memory and of an abundant stock of 
energy, he was unremittingly at work on his favourite subject, and never forgot what 
he had acquired either by reading or by experience. Not only was he thoroughly 
up in zoological literature, but he was also an accurate observer and a diligent 
collector in the field, where nothing came amiss to him. Mammals, birds, butter- 
flies, and beetles were perhaps the groups which he knew best ; but Forbes had, as 
already stated, an excellent general knowledge of the whole animal series. Whatever 
novel object might be shown to him he was very rarely at a loss for its correct name, 
nor for where to refer to for information about it." — Nature. 



Amongst the more interesting and useful papers in the volume may be mentioned 
the Eeports on the Collections of Birds made during the Voyage of H.M.S. 
' Challenger,' '* On the Anatomy of the African Elephant," *' On the Shedding of 
the Horns of the American Prongbuck," '^ Contributions to the Anatomy of Passerine 
Birds," On *< Garrod's Contributions to Bird-Anatomy and Classification," <* On the 
Incubation of the Indian Python," " On the Anatomy of the Great Anteater," " On 
the Califomian Sea-lion," and " On the Petrels collected during the Voyage of the 
' Challenger.' " 



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A HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS, 

Wifh CSoIonred lUnstratioiu of their Eggs. 

bt henry SEEBOHM. 

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"Mr. Sskbohm'b work will be known to moet of our readen already; but the commenoement 
of Baoh an undertaking ahoold not pass unchronioled in the pages of ' The Ibis.' Oology, it is 
true, as Mr. Seebohm tells us in his prospectus, has been muoh neglected of late years — at all 
eyents the scientific aspect of it ; and Hewitson's works being out of print and out of date, it was 

quite time that another British Oology should take its place As his friends are well aware, no 

one is more competent, .... from his unriTalled personal experiences in almost every part of the 
Western PaUearcUo region." — The Ibis. 

"The text contains not only a description of each egg and its yarieties, but also a very full 

account of the life-history of each bird If we may conoeiye the works of Yarrell and Kewitson 

rolled into one, with corrections, emendations, and important additions, and with woodcuts as 
well as coloured plates, such a work will be Mr. Seebohm's when completed." — Zoologiat, 

** To those who imagine that British Omitholpgy is worked out and there is nothing left to do 
in this well-worn field, we commend the study of t he p resent book, as presenting us with a delightfully 
fresh Tiew of an old and familiar subject .... We must regret that we have not space to give 
extracts from the many charming accounts of the habits of our English birds of prey, which have 
certainly not been surpassed by any modem writer. .... We unhesitatingly express our opinion 
that since the time of Macgilliyray no such original book as Mr. Seebohm's has been publifihed 
on British Ornithology, and, in spite of a few less satisfactory illustrations, we think that the figures 
of the eggs are by far the best that haye yet been given." — Natuire, 

" The reputation of this work cannot be long delayed ; it has been done very thoroughly, the 
promise of the first part has been sustained throughout, and the Oolourbd Platkb of Eogs, which 
lorm BO important a feature of these volume, are, upon the whole, very satisfactory. 

" In our former notice of the ' History of British Birds,' when part only of the first volume was 
in our hands, we took occasion to remark upon the easy, pleasant strain in which it was written, 
* redolent of the field rather than of the study.' The style and character of the work are 
continued throughout. We commend, for instance, the description of the migrations of the 
willow-T^ren ; a prettier picture of bird-life could hardly have been written. And if the author 
has at times allowed his patient soul to be vexed by persistent misstatements or capricious variations 
in nomenclature, he has yet shown such an earnest anxiety to verify his descriptions that his aneer 
is surely pardonable. His claim, too, that he has tried to the utmost of his abilitr^ to take his 
facts from nature — travelling far and wide in the endeavour to find them for himself, instead of 
copying them from books — is one his readers will find no difficulty in accepting. There are 
pleaaanter experiences than to wander lost and foodless in a vast Siberian forest, and to follow 
migratory birds to their northern summer breeding-grounds is a pursuit that involves at times 
no small discomfort; but for those who can endure extremes of heat and cold, and are not too 
particular about food and rest, a journey into the northern reeions of Europe and of Asia in 

Eursuit of birds is not without its charms ; and we imagine that the example which Mr. Seebohm 
as set will ere long be imitated by many ardent naturalists, who will find no pleasure so great 
as to follow our migratory birds into their summer haunts ; and feel amply rewarded if they are 
fortunate enough to complete some of the links yet wanting to make bird history complete." — 
Saturday Review. 



SGLATEB (P. L.) and SALVIN (0.). NOMEKCLATOB 

AVHTM NEOTBOFIGALIIJM. 

Boards^ 10s. London^ 1873. 



BBSSSEB (H. E.). A HIST0B7 OF THE BIEDS OF 

EIJSOPE (indudiiig all the Speoiee inhabitiiig the Western Fkdao- 
arctic fi^on). 

Royal 4to. 8 vols, Half^moroeeo, gilt tops. Fifty Otdneas* 

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stones being erased and the type distributed, the work is now out of print. 

Prof. Nbwton, writing in the < EncydopsBdia Britannica ' C^ Ornithology *^, refers to this 
fine work as follows: — ''Is unquestionably the most complete work of its kind, both for 

fulness of information and beauty of illustration As a whole European ornithologists 

are all but unanimously grateful to Mr. Dbbssbb for the way in which he performed the 
enormous labour he had undertaken." 



Just completed^ £5 5s» With 34 heaiUifid coloured Hates, 

DBESSEB (K K). A MONOGBAFH OF THE ME- 

BOPIDiB, or Family of the Bee-eaters. 

This work contains Illustrations, accompanied by as complete Letterpress as possible, of all 
known species of this beautiful Family of Birds. The Author possesses a nearly complete 
collection of the birds belonging to this group ; and, having access to the beet collections 
both in this country and on the continent, he believes that he has been able to make the 
work one which will be of use to the scientific worker and also, from the beauty of the 
Illustrations, find favour with the general public. 

All the species have been drawn, life-size, on stone, by Mr. J. G. Kbulbmans, with his 
characteristic beauty of rendering and accuracy of coloration. 

The Edition consists of Two Hundred and Fifty Copies, 



Just ready, price 3«. 6c?., postrfru, 

WATEBHOTJSE (F. K). THE DATES OF PUBLI- 
CATION OF SOME OF THE ZOOLOGICAL WOBES of the late 
JOHN GOULD, F.B.S. 

^ Afi the whole of Mr. Gould's folio series of Zoological Works bear the dates when they 
were completed, without any reference to the dates and contents of the Parts in which 
the sevend species were figured (with the exception of the ' Birds of Asia,' which was 
completed by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe), and as I am afraid that before long it will be quite 
impossible to ascertain these dates, I hare thought it might prove useful to record those that 
J have been able to obtain from their original coyers. . 

<* Though the main object of this littie book is to record the dates of Mr. Gould's Works, 
I trust that it may also prove useful to Zoologists as an Index.'' — Emtraet from the 
Compiler's Preface, 



{•I 



(E. T.). SOUan KOTES ON THE BIBDS 

observed during Twenty Tears' Shooting and Collecting in the 

British Islands. With plates by E. Nbalb. Large 4to, £2 2s. each part. 
To be completed in Fifteen Parts. Part XI. now ready. 

** Few liTing omithologists haTe a better penonal acqauntanoe with Britiah Birds than Mr. E. T. 
Booth, and we are all glad to haTe the reealts of hia obflerrations, aocompanied, aa they are, by 
Mr. Neale'B life-like illastratiozis. Theee are taken entirely from subjects in Mr. Booth's own well- 
known ooUeotion at Brighton, where every bird now figured may be examined. No visitor to 
Brighton who cares the least for ornithology should omit to visit Mr. Booth's bird-gallery.'' — The 
2bu, 

" We have been so long aooostomed to refer to standard works of reference, which though excellent 
in their kind, are after all but compilations, that it is refireahing to take up a book in which the 
writer tells ua nothing but what he has himself observed." — Zoologist, 



OATES (E. W.). A HANDBOOK TO THE BIBDS OF 

BRITISH BXTBJIAH, indnding those fonnd in the adjoining State 

of Enrradiee. With a map of British Bormah. 2 vols., royal 8yo, £2 2$. 

*' Wb hail with pleasure the issue of the first part of this excellent work, which is just what 
a handbook ought to be. Every spedes is shortly and plainly described, and references are given 
to all works bearing upon Burmese ornithology. A short account of the habits and nesting (where 
known) is always added. Mr. Oates's useful volume will be much appreciated by the students of the 
omis of British Burmah, who with its aid will have no difficulty in recognizing the native species." — 
Thelbu, 

" Another most useful ornithological work has also just made its appearance in Mr. Bugene Oates's 
' Handbook to the Birds of British Burmah.' .... One great characteristic of this book is its 
conciseness. In the present volume of 430 pages, four hundred species are disposed of, and 
yet the principal references are given, as well as descriptions of all the species. In fact, the book 
quite comes up to the idea of what a model ' Handbook ' should be ; and there is no doubt that 
it will be simply invaluable to the collector in British Burmah, within whose reach it is placed 
by the exceedingly modest price at which it is published. All workers in the field of Indian and 
Indo-Malayan Ornithology will not be able to do without this most useful volume." — Nature. 



DIXON (Charles). EVOLUTION WITHOUT NATTJEAL 

SELECTION, or the Segregation of Species without the Aid of the 
Darwinian Hypothesis. Crown 8vo, price 2». ed. 

** Thi reader who takes up Mr. Dixon's little book in the hope or expectation that it is written to 
confute the imperishable theory of Charles Darwin, will find himself curiously mistaken. Bather 
does its author set himself to supplement that theory, and to clear up certain difficulties expressed in 
connection with it by its immortal originator. Particularly does Mr. Dixon insist upon the effect of 
isolation in the origination of species, and, postulating a primsBval Pohir centre, whence life radiated, 
shows how this factor would operate in the production of new forms of life. Climatic influences, 
sexual selection, and interbreeding are dealt with in succession as originating species. Ke autor ultra 
crqndam, and our author has done wisely in drawing his illustrations from birds alone, he being a 
professed ornithologist There is much in this small volume worthy of perusal by the philosophical 
naturalist." — Knowledge. 



irEWTOH (A.). OOTEEGA WOLLETANA. An iUos- 

trated Catalog:ae of the Golleotion of Birds' Eggs formed by the late Johk 
WoLLET, Jnn., M.A., F^.S. Edited firom the original Notes by Alfred Newtoit, 
M.A., F.L.S.— Part I. Plates by Wolf and others, those of the Eggs coloured. 
Acoipitres. Price ^1 lis. 6d. 

TBISTBAH (Canon). FAUNA AND FLOBA OF PA- 
LESTINE. With coloured plates. Half-morocco, gilt top, £2 I2s 6d. 

The reverend Author's name Ib a sufficient guarantee for the thoroughneeB of this undertaking. 

Now ready : Price 3ls. 6d. Second Edition. 



Dedicated by Special FermisBion to 
HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN. 

BT 

Captain WILLOUGHBT VERNER, Rifle Beigadb, 

LATI D.A.A.G. JlfTBLUOIirCB DEFABTMBNT, NILS BXPEDITIOVART lOBCB. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

** A voLUioi that will be far more popular with English people is Oaptain WiUooghby Yemei's 
* Sketches in the Soudan' (R, H. Porter). Oaptain Vemer was attabhed to the Intelligenoe 
Department of the Nile Expeditionary Force, and his name must be familiar to all of us who followed 
with thrilling interest from day to day the fortunes of the desert column. Amid hardships, hard 
fighting, and incessant work he found time to fill his sketch-books ; and in this most interesting 
volume we have yindly brought before us the scenes and the ever-memorable spots we must so often 
have tried to imagine. Gapl^n Yemer adverts apologetically to the great difficulties attending the 
reproduction of coloured sketches by lithography, particularly as regards the rendering of dutant 
effects. That must always be the case, and yet in one or two of the sketches those difficulties have 
been triumphantly overcome. Take, for instance, the ' Water at Last,' or, better still, the ' Dawn : 
the end of the Night March,' in which three spectral figures stalking along on their camels, standing 
out against the faint golden glow on the horizon, are throwing long shadows across the sands that are 
flushing to the reflection of the skies. One of the most striking pictures is the ' Oolumn crossing the 
Bayuda ; ' one of the most interesting, the now famous ' Wells of Gakdul,' with the huge rocks over- 
hanging the blue pools of the fountains. But we are shown everything through each successive stage 
of the expedition — the transport service on the river, the charges of the Mahdi's men, the corpee- 
strewn battlefields abandoned to the vultures, and the reconoissanoe of Wilson's steamers on Khartoum, 
when Oaptain Vemer shipped on board the ' Safia.' " — The Times. 

"All the episodes of the expedition are illustrated with efiect; and though Oaptain Yemer 
alludes to the difficulty of reproducing coloured sketches by lithography, there is not much need of 
apology on that score ; his brief descriptions of the incidents in each sketch are written in plain, dear 
English. The book is dedicated by permission to the Queen, and there is a long list of subscribers, 
which will, no doubt, be very largely augmented by the general public as soon as they are aware of 
the existence of such an interesting record of the Ehartoum Belief expedition of last year." — The 
Army and Navy GajBette. 

*' The work on the whole is of surpassinff interes^ and th^ author may fairly be congratulated on 
the successful manner in which he has treated his subject."— Morning Post. 

"A book of 'Sketches in the Soudan,' commendable for graphic fidelity and for their artistic 
merit." — The Illustrated London News. 

*' Their chief interest, indeed, is in their truth to nature and to fact, and in the romance and 
terror of some of the scenes depicted. The accompanying letterpress is judiciously concise ; but it 
gives a straightforward aoooimt of the campaign from beginning to end. Oaptain Yemer's drawings 
have been well reproduced by chromolithography by Mr. J. G. Keulemans — the colour and efibct 
being oarefuUy preserved." — The Graphic. 

** A faculty for massing facts and dealing with them in clear concise language has enabled Oaptain 
Yemer to fill every page of his ' Sketches in the Soudan ' with interesting details, apart from the 
merits of his artistic work. The book is excellently well done by its publisher, and dedicated by 
permission to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen." — The AdmiraUy and Horse Gtiards Gazette, 






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