Evening star., 1923-11-26

Lord Hardinge was convaIescent he
happened to have a conversation in
Delhi Delhi wah my wife, who In had bee been z
question what it felt like to be bomb
ed, the viceroy told her that he really
felt very little pain for the moment,
and that his first thought was for
his wife. He then said, You were
at Calcutta at the time, Mrs. Buck
What did you think of the affair when
you first heard of it?" My better
halfs reply will probably be better
journalistic enterprise than it was by
the governor general. oh" she said,
my first thought was. 1 do hope my
husband got his wire home before
are human and Lord Hardinge laugh
ingly admitted that Reuter- had very
successfully and most uncomfortably
forestalled the government of India.
Tigers Not Everywhere.
I have already briefly referred to
shooting in India. Tigers are not
found behind every bush, as Is fondly
imagined by some tourists, but they
are fairly plentiful in the terai or
thick Jungles at the foot of the Hima-
layas, in the Sunderbans at the mouth
of the Ganges, and in portions of the
central and united provinces. They
d
for the rulers themselves, or for
viceroys and distinguished guests, In
native states like Gwalior, Rowan,
Alwar, Bhopal, Cooch Behar Hydera-
bad and Mysore.
There is, of course, magnificent
tiger and rhinoceros shooting in the
kingdom of Nepal, but passes to shoot
there are difficult to obtain, and the
Nepal authorities nowadays only ar
range their famous shoots for them
1t;
and the Prince of Wales enjoyed
splendid sport in the Nepal forests
during their tours in India Some 500
elephants, l remember, were engaged
In beating and ringing up the tigers
in the princes shoot. The only lion
shooting in India is found in the
forests of Cir in Kathiawar, on the
Bombay side, but leopards are found
all over. India, and bears are fairly
common on all the Himalayan slopes.
Pig-sticking or boar hunting, in many
mems minds the finest sport in India,
is excellent in parts of Bengal, the
united provinces and Bombay.
In Elephant Runaway.
Life has not been without its ex-
elements in the east, apart from
journalistic episodes. / think I have
had at times all the fevers which at
tack the ordinary sojourner in India
/ have been to more than one big
game shoot, and in addition to assist
Ing in killing several tigers l have
had a wounded leopard jump on to
my elephants head, and have then
perlence of an. elephant bolting
through the jungle and having my
clothes torn to ribbons in conse-
quence.
1 have also been on an elephant
when 1t was attacked by a swarm of
wild bees which was disturbed in the
jungle, and again there was a wild
race, luckily on this occasion across
an open plain. But this time the ele-
phant was urged to rapid action by
it's mahout (driver), for more than
one man in India has been stung to
death by wild bees. as their sting is
poisonous in the extreme and their
viciouSneSS and persistence in pur-
suit are extraordinary.
/ have also been knocked down by
an elephant, which suddenly went
mad with fright when an endeavor
was made to place a huge dead
back.
Experience I'm Earthquake.
On another occasion 1 had to shoot
on foot a wounded charging leopard
at about eight yards with a shot gun
have narrowly escaped being bit
ten by a cobra which made its way
into my bathroom, and l have had a
mad dog under my bed in a tent in
camp in the dead of night. / man
aged to shoot the brute but not till
it had bitten two ponies, two camels
and three dogs, all of which went
mad or had to be destroyed. Once
while pigsticking boar charged my
horse. knocked it over, jumped on me
as l lay on the ground, ripped open
by coat and left me unscathed
/ can also remember in Simla an
earthquake so severe that a floor col
lapsed and a colonel's wife descend