THE JUNGLES OF CHOTA NAGPUR 5 



With my head shikari, Bishu, and two assistants I had left 

 camp several hours before dawn, and we had reached our 

 present position without having come across what we were in 

 search of, the tracks of a solitary bull bison. Those of a herd 

 with a young bull in it had been followed for a short distance 

 and dropped at the foot of the last steep rise to the position 

 now occupied as they trended off round the slope, and I had 

 wished before proceeding further to obtain a bird's-eye view 

 of the surrounding country, and check if possible the 

 direction of a certain valley and stream which there was 

 reason to believe were wrongly marked on the map. 



The point had been settled, and having gazed my full 

 at the wonderful scene outstretched before me I turned to 

 the head shikari with a query as to the direction in which 

 we should proceed. As the question left my lips one of the 

 assistants, who had been sent to prospect down the far 

 side of the crest, returned, a broad smile upon his not 

 unprepossessing visage. In a whisper he conveyed the 

 information that less than half a mile away he had picked 

 up the tracks of an old bull who had passed the afternoon 

 before. A few questions from the head shikari and we 

 set off for the spot. A very cursory inspection proved 

 that the assistant was correct, and Bishu added the 

 information that the bull had passed at four o'clock, in- 

 dicating the position in the sky the sun would be at that 

 hour. They are marvellous trackers these Kols, and will 

 carry a trail over the most difficult country in the world 

 with scarce a falter, often taking it at a smart walk over 

 hard trap rock, where, to the uninitiated and untrained 

 eye, it appears to be an impossibility to say that an animal 

 has passed by. If they have a fault it is a fondness for 

 cutting round the base of a hill instead of following the 

 trail to the top in the expectation that their guess of the 

 animal's direction, often a most shrewd one, will prove 

 correct. And it must be admitted that they are not often 

 wrong. 



A council of war was called, and it was soon determined 

 to follow the tracks of the old bull, for he appeared to be 

 something out of the ordinary. 



The trail took us straight down the rocky, stony hill-side 

 through a sparse forest at first, the going proving arduous 

 owing to the masses of the long, trailing " sabai " grass 

 {Ischcemum angustifolium) which grew in tufts from amongst 



