gives excellent sport, and in the opinion of some
anglers, superior to salmon fishing. I have said in my first chapter on
coffee, that the life of a planter to any one fond of nature and an open
air life is an agreeable one, so agreeable that, though from accidents of
fortune no longer dependent on coffee, I still find it the most pleasant
life in the world, and return to it annually with pleasure, and I think
that the mere enumeration of the varied forms of animal life, which are so
interesting both to the sportsman and the naturalist, will go far to
justify my conclusions. Having thus glanced at a part of the fauna of the
province, I now proceed to the big game shooting section of my chapter,
but, before doing so, I may mention that it is stated in the "Mysore
Gazetteer" (Vol. II., p. 13) that, according to old legends, the lion was
once to be found in the Province.

Of elephants, and elephant shooting, I have had no experience. In Mysore
and in British India they are reserved by the State which, from time to
time, captures the elephants by driving them into large inclosures, and
there is a record of one of the sales of captured elephants in my second
chapter. But the reader need not regret my want of experience here, as it
would be difficult for any one to add to the admirable and exhaustive
account of elephants and their ways which is to be found in the late Mr.
Sanderson's[15] admirable work. His death is really much to be lamented,
for he was not merely a destructive sportsman, but an intelligent and
sympathetic observer of the wild animals he lived amongst, and I think I
am only repeating current opinion when I say that a more admirable and
interesting work of its kind never was written. Mr. Sanderson, I may
mention, was specially employed by Government to superintend the capture
of herds of elephants, and also to hunt man-eating tigers, and tigers of
obnoxious character.

Tigers, as to which I shall have, I am afraid, rather too long an account
to give, are fairly numerous in the forests of the Western Ghauts, and
some other parts of the country, if I may judge by the fact that rewards
were paid for 68 in 1874, and for 100 in 1875, but in former times they
were much more numerous in certain parts of the province, a fact which is
testified to by General Dobbs, who when a young man was in civil employ in
the Chittledroog division of Mysore in 1834. He mentions in his
"Reminiscences of Life in Mysore"[16] that his