Sporting Trips of a Subaltern (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV SPOBT IN THE PLAINS AND THE 8IWALIK HILLS Two days of 1896 had elapsed before I got any shikar. On the third, however, two of us went out ten miles from Meerut and bagged a good black buck. Many people in India despise black-buck shooting, but it is really very good fun if not overdone, and there are many slower forms of entertainment than riding about the country with a rifle for buck, a gun for jheels (swamps) where duck or snipe may be seen, and a spear for anything rideable. The procedure, as a rule, is as follows:?Ponies are sent out overnight, and one drives out in the morning; then, having mounted, one rides off, attended by the syce and a shikara, and all keep a sharp look-out. A small reward to whoever first spots buck is a wonderful encouragement to eyesight. A herd having been sighted, all depends on the season of the year and the ground; should crops be standing, a stalk is a fairly easy matter, or often use may be made of a nullah or one of thebanked-up water distributaries for irrigation as a means of approach. Should the buck be in the open, it is a more difficult job. One way is to dismount and get your syce to lead your steed round the herd, you yourself keeping the horse between you and them. This must be originally done at such a distance that the buck are only curious, not alarmed; then, never allowing the syce to look towards the herd or to change his pace, the circle can gradually be narrowed. Should they show alarm, turn slightly outwards again till they have quieted. Eventually, when you are sure of your shot, or think a nearer approach would send them off altogether, sit down; the syce and horse preserve the even tenure of their way followed by the eyes of the herd, and you take your shot. Another way is to have a cloth handy and put...