The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-05-25
From The London Era

From The London Era.
FIELD SPORTS IN INDIA.-Sir: The sport
of shooting in India, in heavy woodland coun-
tries, is chiefly pursued on elephants which
are especially trained for the purpose. They
are Of a very high caste, and come out Of the
Burmese country, the province of +" Syltett.'
An elephant of superior caste is always more
or less mottled with black and white spots on
the forehead and trunk, and such have been
invariably found to possess much higher de-
gree Of courage than those whose color is uni
form throughout With the exception cf the
tiger, panther, and leopard, unless perchance
the party should fall in with rhinoceros, no
other beas: in India will dare to attack the ele-
plant, and the three former Of these, unless
wounded, would avoid him if they were not
too closely pressed for room TO escape.
was once on a shikar excursion, with party
Of PERSONS, in the wids Of Orissa there were
four Of us in number, being mounted on two
elephants, one Of which bore ample scars and
sicatrces, from wounds inflicted by various
tigers he had at different times encountered
We bored our way through some very dense
forests, expecting to meet with tigers, as we
had previously observed their footsteps on the
loose sands of the Lubunreeka river, which
skirted the eastern side Of the forest. We,
however, found some parts of the jungle i'm
pervious, and we were glad TO make our way
through it as well as we could and run the
chance of meeting with any shikar" that
might present itself to US. In the course of
journey Of three miles, we managed to kill
nine deer, two hogs, civet cat. five peafowls,
and brace of jungle cocks. The sun be-
coming exceedingly powerful, we directed our
course over one Of the fexions ofthe river, to a
solitary indigo factory, where it was our deter
minaton to take up our quarters during the
heat Of the day
On our arrival at this welcome retreat, the
villagers informed us that in the middle Of
large field. adjacent to castor plantation, about
quarter ola mile from the bungalow in which
we were resting ourselves, were FIVE large
wild buffaloes, which had alarmed the inhabi-
tants of the neighborhood for several previous
days. We accordingly, after dinner, having
got our guns in good trim, set out on an ex-
petition against this wild herd. We came
upon them in the field described, under an
isolated mangoo tree, which stood in the mid
die of the plain, and advanced towards them
at quick pace, on which they turned round,
presenting menacing front. One OF them,
more daring than the rest, separated himself
l1om his fellows, and came down towards the
OUtSiue eiepHaHt WIFI All HnpetuouS SHpiSc,
but on arriving within eighty yards, he went
of in cross direction, and presented fair
mark the contents of four barrels were dis
charged at him, and he dropped like stone.
We then pursued the others, but could not get
within one hundred yards Of them, and though
we repeatedly fired at them, we could succeed
only in Gripping them two ofthem we effec-
tually lamed, but they contrived to cross the
river, and in our pursuit Of them we unfortu-
nately got our elephants into quicksand,
which nearly cost us our lives. The evening
approaching, we were glad to return to the
factory, where we remained during the night,
and on the following morning. having ordered
the cooks to bring the head of the buffalo we
had killed the day before TO the house. we
started homewards towards Jellasore, slaugn-
tering deer all the way in the teak forests,
through which we passed. On the following
day we changed our system OF the chace, and
took TO hog-speaiing, and very good days
snort we had--A Constant Reader Of the
Era.
n0CTOR BIRDS NEW NoyEL-The Adventures
~ OF Roln Day by the author Of Calavar and Nick Of
the Woods is this day received for sale by T. TAYLOR
or for circulation among the subscribers 10 the Wavery