The witness of this very interesting scene was no other than the “last man” of the ill-fated Afghan expedition of 1841-2, who appears to have been an intelligent observer and trustworthy recorder of the ways and habits of animals. He was unable, as he thought, to estimate the number of jackals engaged in the hunt, on account of the possibility of each one having turned back the deer many times, by running past it and posting itself again. This does not appear to me likely, for if the jackals were able so easily to outrun the deer, they might have pulled it down then and there, if in large numbers, and if there were only a few of them, it does not seem likely that they could ever have overpowered so strong an animal. I think it much more probable that there was a jackal to each yelp, and that, seeing where the deer was about to turn in, it was able to shift its position in time to meet it, if not exactly posted, before. Indeed, all these ruses seem based upon the superior speed of the animal against which they are employed, for if two or more wolves or jackals can run down a deer or an antelope, why should they not do so together, instead of one hiding and the other driving the prey? For this reason, though it is stated that the one wolf drove the herd of nylgaus to the place where it wished them to go, as a shepherd-dog drives a flock of sheep, I must suppose either that it could not have overtaken them, or that there is some flaw in the reasoning of the animal when it lays the trap. No doubt a short chase is better than a long one, but the idea which one receives when one reads of a wolf running on this or that side of an animal, so as to drive it just where it wants it to go, is that it could overtake it if it pleased. With the foxes, however, everything is plain and straightforward, since, except by stratagem, they could not possibly catch a hare.