causes, to curb his taste in these matters, the sportsman in India can afford, on a very limited income, to indulge his hobby to the top of his bent, without the fear of game laws, indictments, man-traps and spring-guns, keepers and " mitigated penalties," constantly floating before his vision. Should he even feel a desire to win a name on the turf (that most expensive of all sporting at home) he finds no difficulty in gratifying his inclination at comparatively a very trifling expense, at provincial meetings (for here as at home) the crack stakes are far out of the reach of any but those more fortunate mortals, fruges consumere nati, and who have the shaking of the pagoda tree exclusively to themselves once every quarter. He pays no taxes for his cattle,— their keep is in reality a mere trifle, and moreover, lastly, though not the least, he enjoys the opportunity of astonishing the natives with his feats of original jockeyship. A man who has got anything of an eye for horseflesh, may make a good thing of it in India, and can afford to lose one horse in five-I have often thought what a capital "spec" it would be, to send out a cargo of our country-fair horsedealers, making them pay one per cent. on their profits.

The gunner has a far wider and nobler field open to him,-every bird of the air, and every beast of the field, from the snipe to the peacock, from the hare to the elephant, is within his reach-his best certificate lies in the superiority of his weapon, his best qualification in a true eye, and a steady hand; and if he can manage to "rough it" on hare soup and venison, varied with jungle-fowl, wild-ducks, &c., he need be in no alarm at ever being dunned by the commissariat department.

And now having disposed of the sportsman, let us take a look at the sport, and in this, where to begin is the chief difficulty. Justly, perhaps, we should give the preference over all India field-sports, to tiger shooting; but we already fancy we hear some hard riding daredevil of a hog-hunter, vote us but one remove from Goths and Vandals for so doing. Both are excellent, but bearing no analogy to one another, they will admit of no comparison. The excellence of sport abroad as well as at home, consists in the excitement of its pursuit ; so whether it be pleasanter, that is, more exciting, to be first "done to death," and afterwards mercilessly anatomized by a wild boar, or to find one's cranium in the hungry maw of a royal Bengal tiger, I leave to more experienced masters of the art than myself to determine; whilst, in the mean time, if the reader will allow his imagination to place him beside me for a moment on the back of an elephant, I will introduce him to "my first tiger."

Iced claret had given way to gin and water, and pomgranates had yielded to cheroots, as we sat in our host's bungalow, discussing at the same time his very particular old Tom, and the schemes we had, in our wisdom, laid for the morrow's campaign; but somehow, "the

best laid plans of men and mice gang oft awry," so did they in this instance, for instead of the anticipated sport, the morrow only brought a second deluge with its appearance. I had just dreamt I had shot two tigers, and had at several times been eaten by no less than four, when the old butler relieved my conscience by hammering at my door, to inform me that my coffee had got cold by waiting. What cared I for cold coffee so long as I had the comforting satisfaction of knowing, or at least of hoping, that in consequence of the bad state of the weather, another four and twenty hours were added to my existence, before I could fall a victim to my zeal for sport in general, and tigershooting in particular. I don't know whether such a feeling comes under the denomination of cowardice, but I must own, in each and all of the sports I have witnessed, where life and limb were concerned, (and in the twenty-five years I have inhabited this world, I have seen as much as most people, in every different part of the globe) I always felt much more comfortable and at my ease after dinner than before breakfast,during the excitement of sport every man feels alike, in a certain degree. A man can't afford to flinch, when he knows that if he does so, as the odds go, he must be killed, whilst every exertion he makes will tend to his preservation.

A wet day in the jungles, where it never rains but it pours, is a pretty tolerable test whereby to try the temper of a man, the said man being at the time in the centre of as splendid a shooting district as can well be imagined. Every imaginable design is called into requisition to kill time. Pale ale, brandy-paunce, cards, and cheroots, play each their part in turn, yet, notwithstanding, every clock in the house appears to go backwards. Various people have various ways of passing a wet day in India. Some adopt the very efficacious mode of sleeping until dinner time, others think they are spending the hours more profitably by continually imbibing Hodgson's beer. For my own part, I always give my "muse" a quiet canter on such days, just by way of keeping her in condition, and having her performance on this occasion before me, I see no reason why the public should not be blessed with it. So here goes

THE DRAGSMAN'S LAMENT.

Farewell to the days of my glory!
I'm regular flummox'd, that's poz!
Henceforth I shall live but in story,

As Jem, the swell dragsman wot wos.

Farewell to old Salisbury Plain

The ribbons-the drag-and the team

I never can work 'em again

All through that inwention of steam.

No more shall the "Tantivy" load

Behind nags of true high-going mettle.
Farewell to the "Tales of the Road!"
Folks all follow the tail of a kettle.

Here are six on us thrown on the world,
Like infants, and what makes it "wuss"
"Big Harry," his colours has furl'd,

And taken to tooling a " Buss."

My concerns look all crooked and twisted,
And every thing's going to the bad-
For "Down the road Bobby" has 'listed-
And Tom's turn'd an Omnibus Cad!

So now that I've finished with coaching,
No hosses nor "wheels" to look arter,
I've determined to take up with poaching,
To pay for my brandy and water.

And if, for my frolics, in fine,

I'm scragg'd-just remember poor Jem,
And chalk on my tombstone this line-
"He got into hot water through steam!"

But to return to our tiger-the following morning broke fair and cloudless, and long before daybreak we had lit our cheroots, and were on our line of march to the scene of action. An hour's ride brought us to the side of a thick cane jungle, and the still reeking remains of a half-eaten cow, gave us intelligence that the plunderer was not far off. The elephants having deployed into line, advanced steadily, and never shall I forget the intense excitement I then experienced, as, with my fore-finger on the trigger, I searched the bush around with anxious eyes, expecting every moment to see the tiger located on the head of my elephant. But this was my first expedition-it is quite astonishing how coolly people take this sort of thing, when accustomed to it. In

NO. II.- VOL. I.-NEW SERIES.

T

circumstances of the greatest danger, I have frequently seen men as much at their ease, as if they were hunting hare, instead of tiger.

A deep growl, proceeding from a little distance a head of me, gave me at once both hopes and fears of getting the first shot, amid which contrariety of feeling I already fancied that I saw his skin adorning the walls of my "sanctum."

We had just penetrated through the canes, and my elephant had got about fifteen yards in advance of the others, when I perceived the brute quietly walking away some twenty yards a head. I could not resist taking the first fire at him, not being aware at the time of the danger I was incurring in so doing, and being consequently left with only one barrel in case of a charge. However, my eagerness vanquished my prudence. I had a splendid shot at his "behind," and so I fired away, when with a grin, and a roar, round he came, and, to my unspeakable satisfaction, rushed at the elephant of my nearest friend on my right. He, being an old and cool hand at the work, gave him a ball in the ribs which stopped him for an instant, and in another he was clinging to the elephant's shoulder, like a spread eagle. But his hour was come with an ounce of lead through his brain from a third barrel, he dropped his hold, and "Foil'd, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last," rolled lifeless on the ground. Three bullets had perforated his skin, so there was no doubt but that I had hit him; besides, if any corroboration of the fact had been wanting, the circumstance of one ball having taken effect in a locality, at which no experienced tigerhunter would have thought of aiming, was, of itself, sufficient proof;so that point being satisfactorily settled by the evidence, I was unanimously adjudged the skin, for my prowess. The trophy now hangs in my hall, and I never look at it now, without a vivid recollection of my feelings at the moment when I saw its living owner, his head erect; his round orbs shining with fire, and his tail rapidly lashing his beautiful sides, as he first tuned upon me in his anger. Whatever scenes of danger, or excitement, any man may see in after years; none can obliterate the memory of" his first tiger."