of my chequered life. You are acquainted with me in other active pursuits-delineated perhaps with a presumptive pen: they have, however, amused me in a solitary hour; and I hope will be received by the world as the spontaneous effusions of a man warmly devoted to the beauties of Nature and enjoyment of sports. My avocations have always been at home-I want no foreign land in aid of happiness. Give me ease of mind, moderate store, with kind friends, and Old England for ever!

PETER PRY.

A SPORTING TOUR IN INDIA.

SIR,

I Cannot hope that the contents of this letter will be equally interesting to your readers with the generality of matter contained in your highly-amusing and very instructive publication; yet, as I observed in one of your late Numbers a wish expressed by a correspondent that some person would send an account of the sports found in different countries, I am tempted to give the following account of a Sporting Tour made in Cutch, a province about six hundred miles N W. of Bombay, in company with two other officers.

We arrived at Mandavie, a seaport of Cutch, just in time to cut in from a most dreadful hurricane, which lasted about thirty-six hours, destroying everything within the compass of its range. After having got our tents repaired, which were torn in a manner quite incredible, we started on our tour due west. The first morning we took three brace of greyhounds, intending to have a course with the foxes, but did not find. We had two or three runs with hares;

but they cannot run, and are ge nerally killed in two or three hundred yards. European greyhounds soon become perfectly done up in India, and are there more a source of annoyance than of any pleasure.

We arrived on our ground at nine o'clock, and found our tents (which are always sent on the evening before) pitched, and an excellent breakfast ready. After our repast we started in search of the chief object of our attentiona hog! It will be necessary to say some little respecting the method of beating for these animals, as they lie uncommonly close, and are not driven out without much difficulty. A line is formed of about forty persons, at the distance of from ten to twenty yards apart, each being provided

and

with a stick to beat the covert. If the ground promises shooting, those who are fond of the sport are generally on foot at different parts of the line, with their horsekeeper leading their horse immediately behind them, and carrying the spear, which is from ten to twelve feet long, of bamboo, and Ishod with iron. Another horsekeeper leads a fresh horse two hundred yards in the rear, carries another spear in case of accident. In this manner a large extent of country is passed over, enjoying the shooting, which is excellent. The game, consisting of bustard, black cock (a very delicious kind of partridge), partridges, wild ducks, snipes, horikin, quail, and hares, is extremely numerous. Every step, however, is fraught with the greatest anxiety to hear the shout accompanying the appearance of the " tusky boar." In an instant the gun is consigned to an attendant, and every one is mounted and off.

It will, perhaps, surprise those who have not enjoyed this sport to be informed, what is strictly the case, that the speediest horses cannot run in to a hog that runs well (even on good ground), in less than from half a mile to a mile. But should the ground be bad, which is very often the case, three or four miles of a run may be expected. The best ground in this part of India tries the nerve of persons just arrived in the country; and what is reckoned good ground, on which no hog should escape, is ten times more dangerous than any ground rode over with hounds in the North of England or in Ireland. The Surrey hills are a joke, after the generality of it. Another cause of alarm, and greatly against hard riding, is the number of cracks made in the ground by the intense heat of the sun. These are covered very often with grass as high as a man, and should your horse put his foot in one of them, the consequences will not be difficult to imagine. This long grass also adds greatly to the difficulty of killing; for when going at speed, the hog, being hard pressed, will double short (out of distance from the spear), and making a circle in the grass will get some extent before discovered, and so completely is he hid that the motion of the grass is the only means of tracing him. The only plan is to keep them at their outside pace from five hundred to six hundred yards; and, if this is not possible from the nature of the ground, to press them whenever a good place will permit by this means they will become winded, and will then come to bay and shew fight. If not pressed, they will completely tire out and beat the best horses. I ought to men

tion that the nullahs (defiles, glens, &c. as they are called in different parts of England) are of such a description as to make them very difficult to cross. They are from twenty feet to one hundred yards in width, and from ten to fifty feet in depth, sometimes dry, and sometimes a little water, and often quick sands. They are likewise perpendicular in many parts, and in all places so broken and overgrown with underwood, as to render it necessary to go quickly down them; and as they are no stoppages to a hog, he generally gains a long way in getting over.

The best runs are given by a hog two thirds grown. When younger, they will run remarkably fast, but are in the constant habit of doubling every instant, which makes it tedious and annoying. When they are old, on the contrary, they will only run a short distance, sometimes not move; and, well knowing their own powers, will instantly shew fight. It is by no means then an easy task to kill them; and, after it is recollected that an old boar is considered fully a match for a tiger, and that the latter will not attack him unless driven to it by hunger, it will not be difficult to comprehend how dangerous, both for horse and rider, the encounter may be with a full grown hog. The very smallest of them will charge on being overtaken. Their activity is quite astonishing, and they will actually spring all fours off the ground like a dog in making their attack.

Some time back in the Deccan, when some gentlemen were hunting, the hog (an old boar) turned sulky, and actually hunted one of the party out of the covert; and auch was his speed, that although

the gentleman kept his horse (a good one) at his best pace, it was uncertain for three hundred yards that the hog would not catch him. One of the natives (employed as beater) unfortunately came in his way, and was thrown down instantly, and so dreadfully torn as to die next day. On ground such as it is possible to keep a horse at a good pace upon, the sport is very fine, and it is then a regular trial of speed; and when closed with the hog, considerable dexterity is necessary to give such a thrust as may disable him. Those who compare it, however, to fox-hunting, are guilty of a gross libel on that noblest of all sports.

For the first three or four days we were unsuccessful in finding the hog in numbers, but on the fifth day we saw a great many, and killed six. We first found five, just of the proper size, and each of us killed one, after a hard run of between one and two miles over excellent ground. After this we found three solitary. The first gave a tremendous run of four miles over a dreadful piece of ground, full of nullahs and long grass, but was killed. The second was killed after a beautiful run of about a mile on capital ground, and in which the horses were neck and neck in trying for the spear. The third, an old boar, ran about three hundred yards, and then came to the scratch. One spear was thrown nearly through him, when we all went in on him, and he was killed with considerable difficulty. The spear is very seldom thrown, to thrust being much more certain, and requiring better riding and greater skill altogether.

Having left that part of the country in which the hogs were numerous, and also having got into

ground on which it was next to impossible to ride to a hog, we turned our attention to shooting; not but that we had generally killed from twelve to twenty brace of game every day in our route. I think it would be quite impossible to have finer sport in any part of the world. It reminded me of the grouse shooting (not inaptly termed the fox-hunting of shooting) in the Highlands of Scotland, but with a much greater variety of game. Of course a greater quantity of game might be bagged in an English preserve, but for fine wild sport it cannot be beaten. Our first day brought to the bag fiftyseven and a half brace, amongst which were all the different species I have already mentioned, toge ther with colombs (a delicious kind of wild goose), and horikin. Our next day was better, and we bagged sixty-six brace. The third day was not so good, being twentynine brace only. These daysshooting were at different places, about ten miles distant from each other, and were over a very small space of covert on each day. The weather was cold, and the birds very wild; otherwise (as we saw at least five hundred brace of game the second day), it was the opinion of some of our party that we must have at least doubled our number of head. I may also mention that we thought so little of the common grey par tridge as not to shoot at them, or at the peacocks, both of which are to be found in thousands; and farther, that at least one third of the game killed is never bagged, owing to the thickness of the covert and stupidity of the natives, who take no kind of interest in the sport.

Some part of the country (Cutch) is very beautiful, and highly culti