tail; on the other hand, the general practice at the Doorjah Poojah, and on other occasions, of sacrificing buffaloes to the gods by beheading them before the altars.

Among the game (?) that I permitted myself to shoot, or shoot at, during my wanderings in the Oudh districts, were alligators-the ghurrial, or long-nosed saurian, whose prey was fish, and the muggur, whose prey was man or cow, or any animal that it could catch, with fish on fast days. Neither of these is of attractive appearance, but I think the latter is the most repulsive member of the animal creation. Of the muggur it may be said, indeed, monstrum horrendum informe; all the epithets signifying forms of ugliness may be fairly applied to this brute: shapelessness is the main characteristic of its blunt head, the bloated carcass, and those legs that, curtailed of their fair proportions, are merely flappers. When it lies stretched along the ooze or sand of a river bank, or by some stagnant pool, it may well be taken for a harmless if hideous and very dirty log, but it is not harmless or as useful as that derelict timber, and its disposition is evil as its body. Yet has that monstrous form something in it which is precious to somebody, even as the less ugly toad is said to bear a jewel in its head. There is a portion of the internal structure of the mugger which is greedily seized upon by natives as a charm, whenever the mugger is given over into the native's hands for autopsy.

When I corrected the term "shooting" into

"shooting at" muggurs, I did so advisedly, because shooting seems to convey the idea of bagging the creature shot, and this is by no means the ordinary result of firing at an alligator; for, as far as my experience goes, the alligator is never to be seen save in the water or on the edge of it, and even when it is lying asleep on a sand or mud bank some feet from the water, no bullet that does not paralyse it on the instant will prevent it from lumbering (the word gliding would convey the idea of too graceful movement) into its aqueous home. A bullet in that point where the head and body join, and where a neck would be if this saurian had a neck, will stop an alligator, and it is by such a shot that I have killed and bagged them.

Muggurs and ghurrials, with an occasional wild goose, were the only things I had to shoot what time I went down the Ganges in a small covered boat to visit certain trade registration. posts on the Oudh frontier. Alligators abounded there small ones were to be seen by the score on the churs and sand - pits, and every now and then a big one-a muggur of 16 feet, or a ghurrial of 20 feet -was to be observed, generally with noses pointed towards the river, and most of them doubtless much more wide awake than they looked. There, upon the sand, these reptiles basked in the genial warmth of a December mid-day sun, and there I now and again killed and landed one.

S

But the place for shooting at them was the bridge of boats across the Gogra, on the Baraitch road. I have stood on that bridge (not at midnight) and fired at twenty or thirty of them within the hour; but always I had to take them as they rose out of the depths, and when they presented only their heads as targets. Over and over again I have seen them sink in response to my shot, and the clear water of the river incarnadined by what might well have been their life's blood; but only once did I bag one in that way, and then I succeeded as a consequence of bad shooting. I hit a ghurrial on the projecting jaw instead of in the head: instead of sinking in the water to die, it emerged upon the bank, and there was disposed of by a shot in the vital spot.

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CHAPTER XI.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TERAI,

SPORTING COMPANIONS-SHOOTING FROM THE HOWDAH-MAHOUTSPADDING TIGERS-A TIGRESS AND THREE CUBS-A MYSTERIOUS TIGER-SMOOTH-BORE GUNS-JACKY HILLS-HIGHEST RECORD OF TIGERS-TIGERS CHARGING ELEPHANTS-A MONSTER PYTHON-THE PRESERVATION OF THE TERAI-FOREST FIRES-JUNG BAHADOOR'S THE MONGOOSE SNAKE AND

ELEPHANT-CATCHING CAMP-PETS

MONGOOSE FIGHTING.

B

UT the shikar of each year from 1863 to 1876 (save 1869, when

I was at home on sick leave), to which

I always looked forward with the keenest interest and an

ticipation of enjoyment, was that of the

Terai. Would that I had kept some sort of

diary in those days, to which I could refer at this juncture, for my memory, challenge it as I may, utterly declines to serve me in some particulars

that might be deemed worthy of mention. By a process of exhaustive analysis I can affirm that I made thirteen expeditions into that region, and I arrive at that positive result by a process which is as simple as exhaustive, for I went to the Terai regularly every season from 1863 to 1876 save that of 1869, when I was not in India. Then, as I usually spent from four to six weeks there, I make out with tolerable accuracy that I gave in the aggregate some sixteen months to the pursuit of tigers thereaway; but when I try to recall the total number of tigers killed on those occasions, I am utterly at a loss. I can remember that in 1863 I got ten, and I suppose that score remains indelibly fixed in my mind because at the time it seemed to me highly satisfactory for a novice in the Terai methods; but I cannot fix any total for any subsequent year, and can only say in that regard that the annual total was more than once below ten, and, indeed, as low as five or six.

Another point as to which my memory will not be jogged to any purpose is as to my companions in some of those thirteen expeditions. Two or three times I went out alone, but even as to ten or eleven occasions I cannot make up my parties; and in addition to those I have already named as my companions of the Terai, I can only think of Colonel M'Bean, chief of the Lucknow commissariat, E. J. Lugard, aidede-camp to the General commanding the Lucknow