called, was destined to be filled with many a stirring incident, and often and often in after years the blade that had done such good service at Moodkee was drawn again and used with effect in the wild and rugged mountain passes of the frontier.

On May 7 he writes from the Dak Bungalow, Kurnaul '-'I have been appointed Assistant to the Political Agent at Ajmir since I last wrote, and am now on my way to join dak, and precious hot work it is too. I had obtained my leave to the hills, and in the same letter that Wood wrote to tell me so he mentioned that this appointment in the line I had applied for was likely to fall vacant, and that, if I liked, he would submit my name to the Governor-General. I answered approvingly, and a few days later heard that I had been appointed. You will be anxious to hear what I think of the matter. It is by far the best line for a military man to get into; it contains all the best plums, and even in the lower grades a man is in a more responsible and independent position than he is with his regiment. It affords regular daily employment of an improving kind, forcing a man to acquire habits of business and application which may be useful to him in any line of life. I had my eye on this agency on the NorthWest Frontier when I applied, but did not presume to dictate, as Jingle says. The North-West Frontier being still raw makes it a more likely place for a man to come strongly into notice. I am under a good man and an excellent officer named Dixon, the head man of all in these parts.'

--

On June 5, having arrived at Ajmir, he continues :—' I got over my journey to this place pretty well. From Kur

naul two nights took me to Delhi, where I stayed for a couple of days with a good-natured but apathetic friend who had been three years at Delhi and never seen the inside of the Royal Palace or any other point of interest.

'From Delhi four nights took me to Agra, where William Grant, whom I met in England at the Lindsays, took me in. He is A.D.C. to Mr. Thomason, the LieutenantGovernor of the North-West Provinces... I took Bhurtpore on my way from Agra to Jeypore, where I was entertained by the Rajah. After breakfast I paid his altitude a visit, which passed off well, and afterwards nearly got a coup de soleil by standing on the top of the house trying to make out the fortifications and the site of the main breach. Then I got behind a tattie and moralised on the flight of Time and the harlequin tricks of that staid old gentleman. Here was I fresh from new fields surveying the scene of a wellremembered contest in which my godfather had borne a conspicuous and honourable part, and in fact the guest of the man to whom that very fight secured his rights. From Bhurtpore four nights took me to Jeypore, where I was received by Major Ludlow, and where I found Colonel Sutherland, the Governor-General's Agent for all Rajpootana.'

A few days later Reynell Taylor arrived at Ajmir and made acquaintance with his immediate superior, Colonel Dixon, whom he describes as 'a man of all-conquering energy, with the credit of having brought one of the most troublesome districts into the most complete order, and also of having induced men who for years had done nothing but fight, quarrel, and plunder to become peaceable subjects and industrious cultivators.'

But Reynell Taylor was not allowed to remain in

beautiful Ajmir or to enjoy the picturesque scenery of its mountains, its valley, and its lake, for on June 9 he was again on the march to take up his duties at Beawur, a place about thirty miles or more from Ajmir, and the headquarters of Mhairwarrah, which was to be his district. He was soon established here and hard at work acquiring his new duties. My days of leisure and lounging,' he writes, ' are over. I have as much work as I can very well do in the day, and the Sabbath comes really as a day of rest. The work is chiefly common magisterial duty, but as it is new it occupies my time pretty well.'

There are many genial letters before me from Dixon to his Assistant, but they call for no comment here. In one of them mention is made of the History of the Mhairs,' a work Dixon was compiling for the Government, and it is evident from the correspondence that Reynell Taylor lent his assistance in its preparation.

By degrees his work became easier to him, and he found time as usual, at this period of his life, to turn his attention to sport. On July 26 he writes to his sister Harriet :

'My life is uneventful and placid. Tell Fortescue that I am within fifty miles of one of the great Indian fishing rivers, the Bonas, and have purchased an establishment of fishing tackle, and hope in the cold weather to kill some fine trout. They say the sport is excellent, and the wild scenery of the river very beautiful, and that if the fish won't bite, five minutes' walk will take you, rifle in hand, into the middle of an Indian hill forest where you may meet with any of the numerous objects of game to be found in the country, elephant and buffalo excepted.

'Regarding tigers, I am rather in a fix. At present I

am the only gun here, but were there six I would not advocate pedestrian cat-shooting. Fancy, I have tiger within a few miles of me killing cattle and playing Old Harry!'

However, he appears to have thought better of this, for a few days afterwards he had engaged a number of men, whom he called his tiger police, and whom he employed to keep a look-out for tigers in the neighbourhood. At last one day one of his 'Lincoln Greens,' as he nicknamed these watchers, came in to report that a cow had been killed not far off, and he writes the following description of his first interview with a Rajpootana tiger' :

'The whole affair was so hurried that I did not get to my ground till eight o'clock in the evening. The "Lincoln Green" had gone on to prepare a place for me to bivouack in, so as to get a shot at Johnny when he came to dinner, so I was obliged to trust to the guidance of an understrapper, and away we walked into the jungle.

'I was rather disgusted at finding the defences were not of the strength that I could have wished. I had nothing but a thickish thorn fence between me and the cow, which lay at about eight yards distant. This was my first attempt at the waiting-out system, and I felt considerably interested in the result.

'I cannot describe to you the excitement of sitting in the middle of a jungle full of all sorts of animals, listening to the unearthly sounds of midnight birds and beasts. I sat for, I suppose, two hours, quite sufficiently amused by listening to the purring of the goat-sucker, the wailing of the peewit plover, the cry of an awakened peacock, or the distant "hurrah" of a whole pack of jolly jackals. In the midst of these familiar sounds would come some strange

deep sound, the solitary cry of a larger beast of prey on the prowl. Occasionally I was made aware, by an animal galloping away from within a few yards of me, that my whole position had been minutely reconnoitred; at other times I could hear the galloping of heavy feet, and then a scuffle and a suppressed whining. At last, when I had nearly forgotten what I had come out about, a foraging party of jackals came over the hill, and some of the vedettes, seeing the carcass of the cow, set to without further ado pulling, tearing, and scrunching the flesh and bones in high glee at their good luck. In the middle of this some larger animal approached, and the jackals scampered off to a little distance. This frightened the big animal, and he moved off again. Then back came the jackals, but it was so dark that, though they were eating beef within eight yards of me, I could not see them. This was very exciting, though I had not seen the big animal yet. While straining my eyes to see the jackals, the Lincoln Green who was by my side suddenly caught hold of my arm and pointed through the thorn fence on my right. I looked, but could not make out anything. Again the jackals retreated, and I now clearly saw the outline of a large animal standing over the cow, magnified by the mystery and excitement of the performance. In another second he had begun to eat. I could not distinctly make out his form or size, but fancied several times that I saw stripes. My assistant was, I think, equally puzzled, but at last he said, "You had better try him with a bullet." I accordingly raised my rifle, and then felt as if I was going to take an awful responsibility upon myself by breaking the mysterious wild dream around me with the report of so commonplace a thing as a gun; and I could have almost