jungle, mostly custard apple, delightfully refreshing, in its ripe season, in a hot day's shooting. In it were great numbers of rock-pigeon; also partridge, quail, and hares, so that there was good variety in the shooting. Occasionally a panther would prowl along the jungle paths; more than once, at night, did we hear its grating call, and often did we see the impression of its broad pads in the sandy roads and drains.

Panthers and leopards are exceedingly numerous all over the Hyderabad country. The ground is peculiarly well suited to their retired skulking habits. Every hill has its craggy, piled-up rocks, and all these have their dens and caves, retreats eminently fit for the hiding-places of beasts of prey. Very exciting incidents in connection with these great cats have happened during the time that I have known Secunderabad. One, which took place, to the best of my recollection, about the year 1865, is as follows:

Some British soldiers, suffering from that very common complaint of Tommy Atkins, "nothing to do," were poking about in a disused burial-ground near the old infantry barracks, when, among the high grass and rank bushes clinging round the old grave-stones, up sprang a leopard, and made its way across the adjacent rough ground. A grand chase took place, and more Tommies, armed with guns, clubs, &c., joined in. The leopard bolted from one cover to another, sometimes in a garden, sometimes in somebody's court-yard, to the excessive horror and consternation of somebody's women and children! So the chase went on, till, at length, the bewildered pard galloped into the house of the Protestant chaplain, a very mild man, without the least sporting proclivities,

LEOPARD IN A WARDROBE.

355

and who evacuated the premises by the back door as the leopard scurried in at the front. So far so good, the leopard was housed; but the question was, in what hiding-place in the house? Room after room was peeped into, with guns menacingly advanced at full cock; but the leopard was not found until, in a bedroom which had already been hurriedly scrutinised, one of the searchers looked into a partly open wardrobe, and saw the abashed intruder lying, brilliant with all his spots, on one of the shelves! The poor beast was completely cowed; and, when some two or three shots had been fired into him through the halfopen doors, he succumbed to his fate, and was dragged out, riddled with bullets.

66

Another curious adventure with a leopard, shortly after that which I have just related, occurred to no less a person than the General Commanding the Force. The General's house is at exactly the opposite end of the station to where the church and barracks are situated, and is on the shore of the Hoossain Saugor, towards which its gardens extend. Very early one morning the native gardener came, in great perturbation, to the house, and said that there was a baug " in the garden! The General pooh-poohed the idea considerably; but the man was so earnest and positive that, at length, he donned his dressing-gown, loaded his gun with ball, and sallied forth into his garden. The gardener stole, on tip-toe, to within a respectful distance of a fine crop of climbing beans which were trained on an arched trellis; and there, sure enough, was visible the rich yellow and black coat of a handsome leopard. The General fired, and was so fortunate as to put the leopard hors de combat with his first bullet.

At Bolarum, also, a leopard was killed under strange circumstances. A large Persian cat, belonging to an officer of the Contingent, was observed to be walking backwards and forwards, doing sentry, as it were, in front of a thick myrtle hedge. Puss was pacing in a most stately manner, with back arched, and tail swollen out into the proper bottle-brush dimensions. His master, curious to know the cause of the phenomenon, went up to the hedge, and there, to his astonishment, were the well-known rose spots on yellow ground, shining in the interstices of the foliage. It is scarcely necessary to say that the unlucky skulker was "polished off" as soon as a couple of guns or rifles could be loaded and brought to bear on him.

The most famous places near Secunderabad for these felines are "Cheetah rock," about four miles on the road to Oopul, the "Mowlally rock," already mentioned, the "Ball-practice," and "Trimulgherry rocks, and the "Gun rock," so called from a large rock, exactly resembling a huge cannon without trunnions, which lies across some smaller slabs on the summit of a great granite hill. One day, in 1869, the whole force was out on "route march," and the route lay along one side of the Gun rock. Just as we were winding along past the hill, two panthers came out from behind some of the broken rocks which are profusely scattered upon the sides of the hill, and walked quietly along till they reached some well-known dens, in which, after having taken a good stare at the crawling column beneath, they slowly disappeared. The subdued roar of excitement in the column of over three thousand men was very striking, as the animals made their progress among the rocks.

PANTHERS SEEN AT ROUTE MARCH.

357

Several sportsmen, including many soldiers of all arms, "prospected for these panthers after the parade was over; but they were not so dull as to be induced to quit their impregnable caverns.

CHAPTER XIV.

Fall from Elephant.-Again at Changalare and Arnagoontah. -Shoot spotted Deer.-Exciting Chase of a Tiger.-Death of another Tiger.-A young Tiger killed.-A Cunning Tiger. -Two Bears killed." Childe Jones' Pilgrimage."-Installation of young Nizam.-March to Bellary.-Coonoor and Ootacamund. Revisit Changalare. - Panther killed. - A savage Hog.-Death of Bear and two Cubs.-Wounded Bear retrieved. Bullocks killed by Tiger.-Tiger kills a Vulture. -Bear killed.

IN January 1870 I met with an accident, which stopped my snipe-shooting for some weeks. On the occasion of a full-dress party in the city, given to the Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, I went there on my elephant, and, after visiting the Meer Allum tank (smaller than the Hoossain Saugor, but still one of the finest sheets of water in the Deccan), we all alighted at the Minister's palace. On descending from my elephant by a bamboo ladder, the sides of the ladder, shrunken by the dry climate, fell away from the staves, and I came down, spraining my left wrist very badly-though not so badly as the right wrist was sprained, twenty-seven years before, at Samulcottah. For upwards of a month after this fall from the elephant I was unable to handle a gun.

In the very height of the hot season, I set out on another visit to Changalare and Arnagoontah, this