by a short, sharp bark and another chorus of squeals.* 'Jaldi, sahib-Jaldi !' ('haste, haste !'). We rush out, and, carefully advancing through long grass, approach the bank of the river, shaded by great trees. There is just daylight enough to see a sight which is given to few to see, the death of the hunted stag, which has been chased by forty hell-hounds for perhaps days—a noble beast, which has used every wile in vain, and has been fairly run into in the bed of the stream. He is at bay in a deep pool, and has tossed several on the points of his horns; but there are others, which press on him from every side, and fasten on his cheek, his neck, and hind-legs. Their jaws, once locked in a vice-like grip, never let go. The unequal struggle soon comes to an end, and the stag falls at the river-bank to rise no more. Then ensues a general mêlée, and every hound, with red tongue hanging out, panting and snarling, rushes in to take his share, not very particular whether he gets hold of a haunch of venison or a piece of another hound. The fight once begun and blood drawn, there is vengeance and fratricidal war, when suddenly the report of my rifle rings out sharp, and the fighting ceases. Another shot at a big sentinel dog which has been sitting on the top of a rock, coolly licking himself, and watching us without a particle of alarm. He falls from his perch, and another dog takes his place. This gentleman looks as if he was a good deal annoyed, and the red hair bristles and stands on his back. He has no idea of running away, but looks a warning to us to come no nearer. The death-worry still proceeds, and little is left of the stag. I fire another shot, and Boodoo advises caution in approaching till the orgies are complete, as he declares that if enraged the pack will attack us.

* It has been recently stated in the Field that these dogs are mute, but I will vouch for the above.

They finish their meal, and deliberately, without hurry, disperse, leaving some of their number dead or badly wounded among the rocks. It is not wise to go too near a wounded dog; but at length we gather the spoils, two good specimens, male and female.

I am very much pleased at securing these rare animals, and trust the taking off the skins to no native skinner, but skin them carefully myself.* For some time all game seemed to have left the Bori forest, but this was the last I saw of the pack. The amount of destruction wrought by a pack of fifty or a hundred sone kutte among the game of the forest must be considerable, especially among the deer, which seem to be their principal quarry. But the Gonds declare they will hunt and pull down any animal, even to the lordly tiger. I have not heard of their killing cattle, but they can tackle nilghai easily, and pigs are their prey, and chital. The battle of an old boar for his life must be a fierce and bloody affair, as his tusks are very sharp, and he can use them. As one does not hear of the wild dog being often shot, it seems likely that they would increase in numbers rapidly. But they remain rare animals, from which it might be argued that a good many are killed by boars or tigers in deadly fights. They are certainly brave in their combined attack, and seem not to fear even man.

There are several quaint old coloured prints in that most fascinating book, Williamson's 'Sports of the East,' published a century ago, depicting the attack of wild dogs on a tiger; showing that the Anglo-Indian sportsman of those days-who is represented hunting in a top-hat—was

* These skins were set up by Rowland Ward in a large case, which was exhibited at two Indian exhibitions in London and the South Kensington Museum, and is now deposited on loan at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. The wild dogs are fighting over the head of the sambur.

familiar with the sone kutte. They are drawn much too smooth-coated and not red enough, but otherwise about right. By-the-by, the artist who drew the wild buffaloes could never have seen one, as he makes the horns to curl back like those of an ibex. When a child, I remember well taking immense delight in that old book, which was kept on a shelf and only shown as a great treat to extragood boys.

The hunting instinct is easily developed in the youthful mind by such books; and that a period comprising ten years of my life was spent in the forests of India, in immediate contact with nature in its most interesting and wildest phases, had something to say to the pictures in Williamson. The books of Catlin, and, later, Gordon Cumming, assisted in stimulating the taste for hunting, which, combined with a love of plants and trees, conspired to make practical work in the forests most fascinating. That such was my lot I can never regret. That it was cast under the guidance of old Indian officers in times when the services could still boast of such names as Lawrence, Colvin, Drummond, Dalhousie, and, not least, Ramsay, I look on as a great honour. That the love of the chase is compatible with perseverance in sterner work I have proved. That nothing but benefit to mind and body accrues from enthusiastic participation in the chase, even the more artificial one of the fox, I am firmly convinced. Young men who have to fight the battles of their country can have no better training than the chase, to knit the muscles and develop them to the best

* I have not visited that former paradise of hunters, South Africa, but I have hunted the bison of America when millions wandered over its vast prairies, and I have shot the great wapiti stag in the Rockies, and the big-horn ram, which comes very near the Ovis Ammon, so that the interest awakened by those old books did not completely languish.

advantage, to train the eye and mind to quick sympathy and action. The love of the chase and of horses, acquired in the saddle, is certainly to both youth and maiden an exhilarating, health-giving passion, and to those advanced in years it is an abiding source of interest and a rejuvenating influence. To those who would choose a career of usefulness, where earnest work can be relieved by active and wholesome recreation, I can recommend no service more suitable than the Indian Forest Service, one full of interest and of great promise for the benefit of mankind in future generations. I must not conclude these recollections without doing honour to the name of one to whose scientific and untiring energy the Government of India is indebted for the establishment and organization of its Forest Departments on the best principles; I allude to Inspector-General Dr. (now Sir Dietrich) Brandis, under whom I had the pleasure of serving. If from unavoidable circumstances connected with ill-health I was obliged to terminate my connection with the Department sooner than I otherwise should have done, just as I was getting into the swing of executive forest work, I can only say that the loss was my own, and that such things are unavoidable. But I can look back with sincere pleasure on the ten years of my service, and can believe that I shall never spend happier years than those which I had the good fortune to spend in the forests of India.

APPENDIX

ON THE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT OF FORESTS

man State

On my taking furlough in Europe, after seven years' employment in India, I received permission from the India Office, on the Visit to Gerrecommendation of Dr. Brandis, to go through a course of forests. instruction in Hanover. Having spent some time there, receiving lectures and practical instruction, I had the good fortune to accompany the Inspector-General on his annual tour of inspection through the Harz mountains. We drove in a carriage and pair The Harz. for miles by smooth roads, which wound upwards among endless groves of pines,* in squares of different ages, standing as close together as they could stick, all planted in rows. Every row was as straight as a line, vistas running forwards in endless perspective, left and right, as far as the eye could reach. What a revelation to one direct from the Himalayas, where no two trees are of the same kind or the same age, and all are located by chance, as Nature sowed them. This was the Harz forest, the birthplace of forest lore.

The country was divided like a chess-board into revier Hochwald-betrieb, 'high(districts), each under its separate officer and management. A wood culture.' district is roughly 1,000 morgen, or acres. The rotation prescribed for trees like spruce is 100 years. The district is divided into ten stripes, or squares, corresponding to each decade of the century, during which period the proper square or stripe, where the oldest mature trees are, is felled and disposed of, and the Ico acres involved are replanted in rows, each row and each tree 3 feet apart. There are nurseries for seedlings, whence the planting out is done. The decade is again subdivided, so that 10 acres

* Fichten and Tannen. The abies and picea of Europe, spruce and silver fir, which make white deal, corresponding with Abies Smithiana and Picea Webbiana of India.