IV A CENTRAL PROVINCE SHOOT 27 



carnival there by night. In the surrounding 

 jungles were good chital and sambhur. 



In front of the camp was the village ; beyond it 

 the river, drying up fast into a succession of rock- 

 bound pools, ran through cliffs and past shelving 

 banks covered with sombre teak forest. The 

 mango and the dak were in full flower, while here 

 and there towering high were the graceful semal 

 trees giving their splash of colour ; " the Ceiba's 

 crimson pomp." 



This was the most sporting place in which I 

 have ever been ; to my lasting sorrow I only had 

 ten days of it. 



Tiger were numerous ; we got kills at once. I 

 sat up and lost two. In one case my machan 

 was too close to the cover, and in the other 

 a party of fishermen proceeded to fish all night 

 close to the kill. 



After this we had one of my favourite kills on 

 sloping ground ; and Govind, one of the last 

 month's Korku allies, posted me well in a beauti- 

 fully made machan in a high tree. A sloping 

 plateau is good because the tiger looks down, 

 thinks he can see everywhere, and that all is clear. 



The jungles round the camp were too extensive 

 to permit of beating. 



Early in the afternoon a little red fox trotted 

 past within twenty yards, brush erect and never a 

 glance at the kill ; virtue personified, " oh, thief 

 of all the world." Shortly before dark back came 

 the little fox, a sneaking criminal now, and pro- 

 ceeded to eat. But it was an uneasy meal, with 

 conscience - stricken rushes to help digestion, 

 and in the last light of dusk he gave tongue 



