pair. This job took them about six hours, so that it was nearly noon before we commenced our homeward route, and late at night when we arrived at the Mulcher huts, where we had left the horses. There we slept, returning to Ooty the night afterwards.

CHAPTER XVII.

ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN THE ANNAMULLAY FOREST.

Coimbatore.-News of elephants.-A Poojah to propitiate the Hindoo deities meets with no satisfactory results. A courtmartial held on the recusant Sawmy.-Sentence and execution. -The ghost of the injured Sawmy appears to the Gooroo,His threat. The laying of the spirit.-Result obtained. The start.-M's hut at Tunnacuddoo.-His hospitality.-A bison wounded.-Taketty.-News of a herd of elephants.Our bivouac.-A night alarm.-Elephants astir.-A bullelephant yields up his spoils.-An immense snake caught.We follow up the spoor of the herd.-Beautiful forest scenery. -Tracking by torchlight. Difficulties surmounted. - We swim a nullah.-The trail.-The herd in view.-A bull-elephant anchored.-A second tusker wounded.-A charge.—A predicament.-A lucky shot decides the day.-The result of a pat from an elephant.

COIMBATORE has ever been considered one of

the most desirable of our military cantonments in Southern India, not only on account of its proximity to the Neilgherry and Annamullay Mountains, and its comparatively cool and salubrious climate,

but because it is a single station, where one regiment only is quartered, consequently the duty is extremely light, and "leave" easily attainable. The town itself stands about 1400 feet above the level of the sea, in dry, well-cultivated country; is neatly built, and consists of twelve wide and well-ventilated streets. Tippoo Sultan, the Rajah of Mysore, occasionally resided in the old palace, the ruins of which are still standing, and built a handsome mosque.

The officers' quarters are substantially built and delightfully situated outside the native town, by a lake three miles in length, which in the season is covered with waterfowl of every description, and in the reeds and paddy-fields adjoining snipe are to be found in thousands. To the lover of large game this station offers peculiar advantages, as the virgin forest jungle surrounding the Neilgherry and Annamullay ranges are celebrated as being the haunts of all kinds of large game, besides containing abundance of teak (Sectona grandis), blackwood (Dalbergia satifolia, box-wood), sandal-wood (Santalum album), and other valuable timber, which is, however, unfortunately too remote from water-carriage to permit of easy exportation.

The end of December (when the north-east monsoon rains are over, and the sun has gained his most southern declination) may be considered the coldest season of the year in all those countries north of the

equator, for at this period the range of the thermometer in the shade is from sixty-two to eighty degrees, and the climate is there delightful, the north-east wind proving enlivening and bracing, and at this time the jungle is considered free from fever, the greatest danger to which the Indian sportsman is exposed.

I had left my eyrie, "Burnside Cottage," near Ooty, having received information that a herd of elephants were said to have been seen near one of the collector's spice-gardens in the Bolanputty Valley, and was staying with M, who was in the regiment then quartered at Coimbatore, whilst my gang went out to gather intelligence. After an absence of five days they returned, their search having proved a blank, no fresh trails having been discovered.

As was my general custom before the departure of my gang on an expedition, I had distributed some few rupees to purchase sheep, fowls, &c., for sacrificial offerings to their "Sawmies," so as to propitiate the deities, and bring good luck on the enterprise, and on this occasion it appears that the non-success of the reconnaissance had excited the indignation of the whole gang against a certain stone image of Haniman (the monkey-god) in the neighbourhood of the lake, as sheep had been sacrificed, cocks immolated, cocoa-nuts broken, and incense burnt before him, and yet the search for game had proved a failure.

I was enjoying a weed after dinner, with M and B when loud discordant vociferations were heard in the servants' outhouses, and going out to see what was the matter, we found the whole gang holding a court-martial on the recusant Sawiney; to which we listened, keeping out of sight. The Gooroo was gesticulating in an extraordinary manner, and holding out somewhat in this style:-" Soono Bhai (listen brothers), here we are all very tired, with our feet broken, and our legs and arms full of thorns with tramping for five days through the jungle, and all to no purpose, for the elephants, may their fathers be burnt, were not to be found, and we had to come back, with blackened faces' before the gentleman and 'eat dirt' (literally, get abused). Is not this vile conduct on the part of that monkey-faced Sawmey, to whom we went to the expense of offering sacrifices of sheep and cocks? Are we to suffer him to laugh at us in our trouble and throw dirt on our beards in this manner? No, brothers, we will pay him out. Heigh! Ali Beg, you are a Mussulman, and do not fear the evil eye of a Hindoo sawmey, so take the cursed son of burnt fathers and defiled mothers who has dared to bring all this evil upon us, cast dirt upon our beards, and make the master turn his face away from us, break off his nose and ears, put out his eyes so that he can never find his way back, and fling him into the lake." The whole gang