when, with trunks uplifted high in the air, they would huddle together, not knowing in what direction to move. Their trumpetings and shrieks when one of them would turn to charge a beater were now very frequent, and they were getting very angry and ill-tempered. However, they were pushed gently forward, and by degrees were nearing the inner trap. It has happened that one of the herd, by making use of the back of a comrade who had tumbled into the ditch, has broken through the stockade, and so gained freedom again. So all round this were many men stationed with guns, mostly old matchlocks, to fire with a blank charge into their faces in case of such a rush. They seemed to fight very shy of the gate, and always, when nearing it, made off again, but were as pertinaciously driven back to it again

The

trap, and tried a backward rush; and though the gate weighed a couple of tons, the combined force of the herd would naturally have most easily smashed it, but a blank charge from Mr. Sanderson's four-bore turned them, and a herd of thirty-six elephants was added to the many captured by this great sportsman. capture of wild elephants had been tried before in the state of Mysore under the Mohammedan rule of the great Hyder, but proved a signal failure. I believe it was tried again in the days of Tippoo Sultan, who fell at the storming of Seringapatam by Colonel Arthur Wellesley, the late Duke of Wellington, when the Mohammedan rule in India was finally broken, and the Hindoo dynasty restored under the rule of Krisha Raj Wadeyar. There is still to be seen near

shoulders. They predicted failure and misfortune before his brilliant kheddah operations in 1873, the very first, and which turned out such a success.

In isolated cases formerly single elephants were caught by noosing them with tame ones. This was practised in Nepaul and Bengal, but no large ones were ever caught, it being very dangerous for the tame ones. Mr. Sanderson has also been very successful in the north of India, among the hills of Chittagong, where he was sent by the government, after his success recorded above, to establish a kheddah and get it into working order. One catch of eighty-five is recorded. In all his expeditions he has had the assistance of a very peculiar kind of jungle wallahs called kurrabas, who are the aborigines of this country. They have curly hair like negroes mostly, not straight like the Hindoos; they also eat the flesh of the bison or of a cow, which the Hindoos will not, as they worship it and regard it as a sacred animal. They pray to jungle spirits, elephants, tigers, and the large trees, and no doubt have added to their divinities, as the conqueror of ferocious animals, their great shikaree Sanderson. Their chief and infallible tracker is their priest or headman Bommam Gowda, an extraordinary-looking object, with white matted hair and beard. With no other dress than a loin cloth, and no other arms but a bamboo, he will wander for weeks with Mr. Sanderson after a herd of elephants, or follow the tracks of a wounded tusker or tiger, and bring the shikaree up to the quarry without ever failing. He sleeps at night under a tree, after a supper of curried rice and a smoke, with perhaps a little grog, of which he greatly approves. Without such tracker, the sportsman will never make a large bag in the Indian jungles, and on them depends his success, provided always that he uses "straight powder."

A weird scene it was at nightfall, when the gates were made secure, and large fires lighted all round the enclosure, where the herd stood closely together, facing outwards, all the dense jungle trodden into thick black mud by their wanderings round and round, searching for an opening of escape; the beaters and coolies preparing their evening meal; the watchers seeing that all is safe and right for the night; and our horses being

led up and down, ready for the returning journey to camp, accompanied by many torch-bearers-a sight not easily forgotten; the return to the camp, also, in the pitch darkness but for the glaring torches, our cavalcade passing under the giant trees and through the matted jungle, where, had we not been a large party, a tiger might have jumped out upon us, and dragged off one to be devoured at its leisure. Colonel Sir Edward Bradford had his arm literally chewed off close to the shoulder some years ago by a maneater, whom he had followed into the jungle on foot, and but for the bravery of his native shikaree, would have lost his life.

When we arrived in camp, a bath and a change from our shooting suits into cool and comfortable smoking or evening clothes soon set us up again, and it needed not hot sherry and bitters to make us enjoy a capital dinner after such a long and exciting day. Of course curry played a great rôle in the repast. You cannot get really good curry out of India, as it must be made of the fresh herbs, and there are so many things added to it as side dishes that we do not understand and are unable to get. It is not of necessity always hot. Some curried meats and vegetables are quite mild to the palate, although some are too hot for a European who has not passed a lifetime in India. A native will smack his lips and ask for more of a curry that you absolutely find impossible to swallow, and to which the hottest of West Indian pickles compares very mildly. Yet how we missed our curry after leaving the hospitable shores of Hindostan behind us! For a long time afterwards our meals seemed imperfect for the want of it. There they consider it as necessary to tiffin, or dinner, as bread itself. The dinner was long and very good, and seldom have I done more justice to one; the champagne was well iced, and the claret not too cool. The air was delightful, as at this elevation the evenings are never hot. We talked all the events over again, and after dinner thoroughly enjoyed our cigars before a big bonfire before turning in to well-earned repose.

The next morning we were up betimes, and after early chota hazrie-i.e., a cup of tea and bread-and-butter-we again prepared to start to the kheddah. Some rode there on one of the Maharajah's elephants,

possibility; at any rate, a far more dangerous, laborious, and troublesome business than it is. The koomkies detach a wild elephant from the herd, and three or four will then surround it, and squeeze themselves quite close up to it, so that it cannot move in any direction. They each have, of course, their mahout, or driver, and have a sort of rope harness round them to enable the men on foot in the kheddah to take refuge on their backs if necessary, as a wild elephant will very seldom attack a man up there, but when badgered about, as he generally and necessarily is before being secured, will at once charge a man on foot. These skilled noosers, who enter, so to say, the arena seated on the koomkies' backs, slip gently down when a wild one is hemmed in, and getting between the legs of a tame one, slip a noose round the captured one's hind legs and hobbles him. On feeling the ropes, the brute naturally begins to kick and swing his huge forelegs, and woe be to the man who should come within his reach. After being hobbled, a great hawser is put round his legs, and a tame elephant pulls this hawser with his teeth round the nearest tree; other tame ones push the hobbled animal towards him, and when his hind legs are close against the tree, they are secured by many turns of the hawser.

on which seats were arranged to seat three on each side, Irish jaunting car fashion, but many preferred the saddle. Few persons can stand the long swinging stride of the elephant without the feeling of dizziness. On that day the work of securing the elephants singly began, and promised to be of the greatest interest. Mr. Sander son had some eighteen koomkies, that is, tame elephants, at his disposal. These are especially trained to the capture of their kind; in fact, without their assistance elephant-catching would be almost an im

On our arrival at the kheddah we found Mr. Sanderson already hard at work. With the sleeves of his flannel shirt tucked up and an old battered straw hat on his head, he was everywhere at once and looking after everything. He has been so much under India's burning sun that he wears this slight head-covering with impunity, although had one of us been foolhardy enough to attempt it, a sun

stroke would have been the immediate result; but he is so hardened by the life he has led that nothing seems able to harm him. There he was, so energetic that it made us sweat to look at him, giving a hand here, directing an operation there, with his "boy" always behind him, carrying his double four-bore, firing twelve drams of powder and weighing 19 pounds. He knows well, by his great experience, the indispensability of a heavy rifle for such large game, and would not attempt to kill any big animals with a light rifle of a small bore, lest they might go off wounded and die a lingering death, and ultimately become food for the vultures and jackals.

When the Prince had taken his place, the gate was slowly raised, and by shouts and noises the herd was driven towards it; but only three or four were allowed to pass, and the barrier was then closed upon the rest, who sullenly took up their huddled position again in the centre of the enclosure, very sulky at not being allowed to follow their comrades into supposed freedom. The koomkies now surrounded

one of them, a young tusker, and after a few unsuccessful endeavors, he was at last hobbled, and then allowed to tire himself out, which he effectually tried to do by running as best he could all round the enclosure, trumpeting loudly all the time, and doubtless presenting to his comrades in the small arena an inexplicable spectacle. There is a great variety of temperament observable in elephants. Young elephants, perhaps only a third grown, especially females, will always give most trouble; these wild ones will always attack and chase any one on foot; but an active man on even ground can outstrip them, and it was always considered highly creditable to do this in as leisurely a manner as possible. The enclosure reminded one forcibly of the Plaza de Torres, and here, as there, we always applauded some daring feat. With shrill shrieks they would charge the men, with their trunks curled up out of harm's way and their ears well thrown forward, their whole demeanor proclaiming mischief. At last they were, one by one, hemmed in and well fastened to trees, and Mr. San