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subdued the creature and rendered him fit to ride: a triumph which established the groom's reputation readily, among a people peculiarly alive to the superiority of their own horsemanship. A horse more than ordinarily vicious was tamed in a singular manner by the people of the country. He was turned out loose (muzzled indeed in his mouth, where his ferociousness was most formidable) to await in an enclosure the attack of two horses, whose mouths and legs at full liberty were immediately directed against him. The success was as singular as the experiment; and the violence of the discipline which he endured, subdued the nature of the beast and rendered him the quietest of his kind. The horses are fastened in the stables by their fore legs, and pinioned by a rope from the hind leg to stakes at about six feet distant behind, so that although the animals are well inclined to quarrel, and are only four or five feet asunder, they can scarcely in this position succeed in hurting each other; frequently, however, they do get loose, and the most furious battles ensue. I have often

admired the courage and dexterity with which the Persian Jelowdars, or grooms, throw themselves into the thickest engagement of angry horses; and, in defiance of the kicks and bites around them, contrive to separate them.

The Resident's stud consists of about twenty horses, mules, and asses; eight of the horses belong to the East India Company, and are principally employed in carrying choppers or couriers to Shiraz. These are obliged however to be renewed very frequently, because one such journey generally destroys the animal that performs it; so difficult are the passes of the mountains, and so unmerciful are the riders.

They have in Persia a very large and ferocious dog, called the kofla dog, from his being the watchful and faithful companion of the kofla or caravan. Each muleteer has his dog, and so correct is the animal's knowledge of the mules that belong to his master, that he will discover those that have strayed, and will bring them back to their associates; and on the other hand, when at night the whole caravan stops, and the mules are parcelled in square lots, the guardian dog will permit no strange mule to join the party under his charge, or to encroach upon their ground. His strength and his ferocity are equal to his intelligence and watchfulness.

We chased one day large white fox. They prey about the open country round Bushire in great numbers, for the natives do not destroy them with all the zeal of Englishmen. The wild animals of the Dashtistan are the wolf, the hyana, the fox, the porcupine, the mangousti, the antelope, the wild boar, the jerboa, and sometimes the wild goat. The mountains of the Dashtistan have also the lion, and he has been known to descend into the

plain. On the 12th of December, Captain Davis, of the Sapphire, shot two cormorants out of a flock that were squatted on a tree. Partridges also have been seen to settle in the same situation. The hawks, which are used in hunting, are the cherk, the balban, and the shahein.

We set off on the 29th of November, before sun-rise, to hunt with hawks. The freshness, or rather the coldness of the morning, was quite revivifying. We were accompanied by an old and keen sportsman, who had long been renowned in the plains of Bushire for his expertness in training a hawk, and his perseverance in hunting the hoobara or bustard. The old Reis, the name by which he was known, was one of the most picturesque figures on horseback that I ever saw. He was rather tall, with a neck very long, and a beard very gray. His body, either through age or the long use of a favourite position on horseback, inclined forwards till it made an angle of forty-five degrees with his thighs, which ran nearly parallel to the horse's back; and his beard projected so much from his lank neck, that it completed the amusement of the profile. On his right wrist, which was covered by large gloves, his hawk was perched. The bird is always kept hood-winked, till the game be near. On our way we were joined by Hassan Khan, the Governor of Dasti, who also carried a hawk, and who was attended by about fifteen men with spears, the kaleoons, or water pipes, &c. We proceeded to Halila, where we commenced our hunt. A hoobara started almost under the foot of my horse; as the bird flew, a hawk was unhooded that he might mark the direction, and was loosed only when it settled. But the sport was unsuccessful in two or three attempts; in fact, when the hawk has had one flight, and has missed his prey, he should be fed with the blood of a pigeon, and then hood-winked, and not permitted to fly again in that day's sport. As soon as the hawk has taken his flight, the sportsmen remain quiet till they can see that their bird has seized his prey, when they ride up and disengage them.

The Ferboa.* On the first of December we caught some jerboas; and I had an opportunity of delineating, and observing with some nicety, all their different properties. The description of this animal has been given so minutely by Sonnini, and, with the controversy on the subject, has occupied indeed so very long a chapter of one of his volumes, that it would be superfluous to go over again the same tedious ground. As there are, however, some little exceptions in the jerboa which I saw at Bushire, I shall endeavour to point them out. In the first place, that gradation from the bird to the quadruped, which Sonnini traced in

* A description of this animal, by Dr. Clarke, is also given in Vol. 27, p. 68.

the hopping motion of the jerboa, did not strike me with the same degree of conviction. When unpursued, the animal certainly hops, though this admission does not imply that he cannot walk without hopping. But when he is escaping from any alarm, he may almost be said to lay himself flat on the surface of the ground from the immense tension of his hind legs, and literally to run ventre a terre. Yet as every observer will feel that there are shades by which the works of creation gradually resolve into each other, and which, by a slow operation, connect the zoophyte with the animated world, and the bird with the quadruped, the jerboa may still serve as one of the first and most preceptible gradations between two kingdoms of nature; but kangaroos, a larger and nobler specimen, would illustrate the connection as correctly.

On the specific description of the animal, I agree with Sonnini's account of the Egyptian jerboas, except that, in two which I examined, I could not find the spur, or the small rudiment of a fourth toe, on the heel of the hinder foot; on the existence of which depends essentially the resemblance which he has discovered between the jerboa and the alagtaga of Tartary. But as the jerboa of Hasselquist, of Bruce, and of Sonnini, all seem to differ from each other, and from those which I examined, in some minute circumstance, it is reasonable to conclude, less that there is any incorrectness in the descriptions, than that there is an essential variety in the animals. The jerboas in the deserts before us at Bushire, do not live in troops, as those of Egypt, according to Sonnini; each has his hole, to which he retires with the utmost precipitation; nor is it possible to take him by surprise in the day, as I learn from Sir Harford Jones, who has had ample opportunities of examining the history of the jerboas; and therefore the circumstance which Bruce mentions, of his Arabs having knocked them down with sticks, extends probably to no general inference. Nor can I think that Sonnini is correct in supposing that the animal is fond of light. Those which I kept in a cage remained huddled together under some cotton during the day, but in the night made such a scratching, that I was obliged to send them out of the room. Besides, one of the most common methods of catching them is by the glare of a lanthorn, which seems to deprive them of the power of moving, and subjects them quietly to the hand of the man who bears the light. There is another and an easy way of catching them, by pouring water down one of the apertures of their retreat; they immediately jump out. We hunted several with spaniels, but, although surrounded on all sides, they escaped with the greatest facility : when very closely pressed, they have a most dexterous method of springing to an amazing height over the heads of their pursuers;

and, making two or three somersets in the air, they come down again in all safety on their hinder legs, many yards from the spot of their ascent. In this leap they probably use their diminutive paws. Even a greyhound stands no chance with them; for as soon as he comes near, they take to the somersets, and the dog is completely thrown out. Their flesh is reckoned very fine, as the people here who eat them assure me. As the animal is very sensible of cold, and formed so delicately, and apparently so little prepared to resist frosts and snows, I cannot think, though Sonnini seems to imply it, that it is found in very northern climates. Rats and hares indeed are found in the coldest as well as in the warmest parts of the world; but nature has provided them with a clothing more appropriate to the change.

FROM THE SAME.

INDIAN SPORTING.

BY the late arrivals from Calcutta, we have received the following account of a Tiger-hunt in that part of the world :

Calcutta, May 15.-Our late letters from his Highness the Vizier's camp, at Surnutty, notice a very narrow escape of captain Baillie, the Resident at the Court of Lucknow, from an accident that threatened a fatal termination. The circumstances are as follow:

On the morning of the 28th ult. the Nawaub being on his annual hunting excursion, a report was brought in that the jungle adjoining the camp abounded with tigers and other game. Thither, accordingly, the Nawaub, Captain Baillie, and the hunting party, beat their way with all expedition.-Shortly after entering the jungle, the party started three tigers and a bear; one of the tigers attacked the elephant on which Captain Baillie was mounted with the utmost ferocity. The elephant became unruly, and Captain Baillie was precipitated from the howdah to a considerable distance, with great force, and with his gun in his hand: he was very severely bruised. Most fortunately, at the instant of his fall the Nawaub fired and lodged the ball, from a rifle piece, in the body of the tiger, which, though it did not kill the animal, brought him to the ground. The tiger being thus disabled, Captain Baillie had time to recover from the shock occasioned by the fall, and advancing very coolly towards the tiger, who had now got upon his legs, pointed his double-barrelled rifle, and lodged the contents in his head, which gave him the coup de grace. By this time the party had heard of the accident, and, dismount

ing, came up to Captain Baillie, who was much exhausted, and bruised in several parts of his body. He was freely bled upon the spot by Dr. Law, from which he received immediate relief, and by letters of the 2d instant, we learn that he was quickly recovering. The party were to set out on their return to Lucknow on the 3d instant. They have had tolerably good sport; and in the jungle, which they hunted in the morning of the 28th ult. they killed seven tigers and five bears. A female bear was shot while running off with two cubs on her back; the two young bruins were taken alive. Two or three men, who were so imprudent as to venture alone into the jungle, are supposed to have been carried off by the tigers, as they were missing, and no account heard of them. One man, while cutting reeds, was seized by a tiger, upon which, with great presence of mind, he thrust his knife into the abdomen of his assailant, who made off, leaving the reed cutter to make his escape. This tiger was shot in the course of the same morning by the Nawaub.

FROM THE SAME.

ALLIGATORS.

The subjoined letter from Ghazeepore, gives an account of an uncommonly large alligator, killed at that place :

"Several very large alligators having been observed for several days, about noon, to assemble at a particular spot near the bank of the river, two officers of his Majesty's 67th regiment, went out with a determination to shoot one of them, which they effected with a rifle-gun. The animal was not immediately brought on shore; he was picked up three days afterwards. The ball had entered the head, and passed out on a line leading directly under each eye; several other balls had struck him on the body, but they were thrown off by the scales, without penetrating. Upon being measured, he was found to be twenty-nine feet in length, and seven feet in circumference. The jaws from each orbit of the eye, to its extremity, measured three feet, and contained fiftytwo teeth in the upper, and forty-eight in the lower jaw. After separating the integuments, the knife passed through nearly eight inches of solid fat; on opening the stomach, there were found several half-digested human limbs; the heads of two children, and a very great number of small stones, which probably had been swallowed in order to promote digestion. I was not previously aware that the natives of Hindoostan, who excluded almost all animals from their bill of fare, would condescend to eat the

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