before it was light, I felt the
indefatigable Admiral tugging at my ear, and bidding me get up, to
accompany him on a shooting excursion, and as he said, "Mayhap we
shall get sight of some of those elephants, the existence of which you
presumed to doubt last night. Come, Mr. Officer, show a leg! I know
you are a bit of a philosopher, and curious in natural history; so
rouse up and come along with me."

Most cordially did I then anathematise all philosophy, and wish I had
never expressed any curiosity on the score of wild beasts, peacocks,
or ancient tanks; but as the Admiral was not a person to be trifled
with, I made a most reluctant move, and exchanged the delightful dream
of hot curries and cool sherbet for the raw reality of a
shooting-match, up to the knees in water, at five in the morning. At
one place, such was his Excellency's anxiety to secure a good shot at
some ducks, that he literally crawled for a couple of hundred yards
among the muddy shore of the lake on his knees, and at the end
expressing himself fully repaid by getting a single capital shot at a
wild peacock! He was also gratified by bringing down a magnificent
jungle-cock--a bird which resembles our barn-door fowl in form, but
its plumage is vastly more brilliant, and its flight more lofty and
sustained, than any of which the bird can boast in its tame state. Our
scramble in the mud brought us within sight of a drove of several
hundred buffaloes. We saw also several troops of wild deer; but, to
our great disappointment, not a single elephant could we catch even a
glimpse of. We counted, at one time, several dozens of peacocks--some
perched on the trees, some high in the air; we fired at them
repeatedly, but I do not believe any came within shot. Their plumage
exceeded that of our tame peacocks less in the brilliancy of the
colour than in the wonderful fineness of the gloss--a characteristic
of animals of all kinds in their native state. We scarcely saw one
small bird during our whole excursion, or heard a single note but the
hideous screams of the peacock and parrot--tones which dame Nature, in
her even-handed style of doing things, has probably bestowed upon
these dandies of the woods, to counterbalance the magnificence of
their apparel.

While discussing this point, the collector took occasion to point out
to us the great importance of such artificial means of irrigating a
country as the ancient lake of Candelay, by the side of which we were
now