

CHAPTER I 



THE JUNGLES OF CHOTA NAGPUR 



The jungles of Chota Nagpur — A fine shikar country — The Kols and 

 their villages — Bishu, head shikari — Marvellous tracking powers of 

 the Kols — The Indian gaur or bison — Pick up the tracks of an old 

 bull — Deserted villages in the forest — Villagers' hopeless struggle 

 with wild animals, malaria, and the encroaching jungle — -Promising 

 young tree crops occupy areas — Follow the bull — River terraces — 

 Giant old trees and feathery bamboos — A rocky ravine and beautiful 

 scenery — Come up with the bull — An unlucky contretemps— A 

 grateful halt — Set out again — A long trek — Again find the bison — 

 Face to face with the bull — A hurried retreat — The bull badly hit 

 — Follow him down the valley — A last shot — Bishu's determination 

 — Death of the bull. 



SOON after dawn, one December morning, a score 

 of years ago, I stood leaning on my rifle and 

 surveying a scene of great beauty which lay out- 

 spread before me. The point reached after an 

 arduous chmb was the summit of one of the higher ranges 

 of hills in the wilds of Chota Nagpur, at that time forming 

 the Western division of the province of Bengal. Below 

 stretched a sea of brilliant green forest of the valued s41 

 {Shorea robusta) tree densely clothing the valleys, ravines 

 and lower part of the sides of the tumbled chaotic mass of 

 hills upon which I gazed. Away in the distance a yellow 

 ribbon with a silver streak (a tributary of the Mahanadi 

 River, the only river of importance in Chota Nagpur) ser- 

 pentining across it, over which hung a white filmy mist, 

 showed where the hills dropped into an elevated area of 

 cultivated table-land. 



The sun had just risen and was rapidly sucking up the 

 white vapour which lay in the deeper ravines. Here and 

 there a faint smoke rising above the deep sea of green pro- 

 claimed the presence of a jungle village, consisting of a 

 collection of miserable mud-walled thatched huts, the 



