256 MY ALLY LL 



I got ten days' leave of absence, and paid my first visit to the bungalow 

 on the Billiga-rungnn hills. I little thought how pleasantly the lines were 

 to fall to me hereafter, and that I should be engaged in work which now 

 constantly takes me to the locality, and all over the hills. There was a 

 country-born European living in a room in the bungalow in those days, in 

 el large of an experimental Government Cinchona Plantation, and he proved 

 himself very obliging. He (H.) was a young fellow with the constitution 

 of a bison, and he seemed to enjoy life, though his pay was but lis. 40 

 a-month, and he lived miles from everywhere. He shot a deer or two occa- 

 sionally with a dangerous old blunderbuss he possessed — regarding which 

 we entered into an early arrangement that it was never to be fired when 1 

 was near — and thus he was able to obtain a little meat. He procured fowls 

 and milk from the low-country villages. 



As there appeared to be no bison close to the bungalow, according to 

 the accounts of the Sholagas whom H. collected for me, I decided by their 

 advice to take my tent and servants to a place called Yemmay Gudday 

 (bison-swamp), and I asked H. to come with me. We started early, the 

 Sholagas carrying my things, whilst H. packed his effects in a blanket 

 and shouldered them himself. This I thought a good trait, as his class 

 are usually above doing much for themselves. 



We arrived at Yemmay Gudday — a low-lying valley embosomed in hills 

 — and found a good site for the tent. This was hardly pitched when I had 

 a severe attack of ague and fever, from recent exposure to the sun in the 

 low country, and could not go out that day. I had a pan of burning char- 

 coal placed under my bed (though it was then mid-day, and the tent wry 

 warm), all my spare blankets and clothes piled upon me, and drank scalding- 

 tea. Still my teeth chattered as if I had been in my night-shirt on a cold 

 winter's night. I could not sleep, and in the morning, though the fever 

 had left me, I was too weak to attempt walking, so sent H. out with the 

 Sholagas to find what bison there were near. 



In the afternoon a Sholaga brought word that they had found a herd 

 within two miles of camp. This was too much for me, so I was helped 

 upon my pony, which a man led, and away I went. We were soon met by 

 H. and a tracker who said the bison were in a small cover only a hundred 

 yards away. I dismounted and took the 12 -bore spherical-ball rifle which 

 I used in those days, loaded with G drams of powder. I quite forgot my 

 weakness for the moment. 



We were near the cover when with a sudden stampede the herd, of 

 about twelve, rushed out in single file (having winded us), and made up a 

 slope on my left, thirty yards distant. 



