ii8 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



There can be little doubt that too much sitting at head- 

 quarters in the office is the greatest deterrent to sound and 

 more rapid progress in India as it is to obtaining an adequate 

 knowledge of the people one has to govern or work with. 



I have alluded to the mithan, the bison of these parts. My 

 remarks on the denseness of the forests in the Hill Tracts 

 would lead to the inference that there was little chance of get- 

 ting near these or other animals. And such is the case over 

 a great part of the country. In the more southern portions 

 of the Hill Tracts area, however, the forests are more open ; 

 hill-sides, probably jhumed in years gone by and so cleared 

 of their primeval forest, are covered with bamboo growth 

 only, principally the bamboo known as the muli bamboo, 

 the stems of which grow out of the ground singly and 

 not in clumps. Other tracts are covered with a tall coarse 

 stout grass called sunngrass. Such clearings are known 

 as sunnkholas and many of these were leased either by 

 Government or their owners and cut over yearly. It was 

 possible by judicious tending, removing coarse weeds, and 

 burning after cutting, and so on, to greatly improve the 

 quahty and quantity of the grass on these areas and leases 

 for a period of years were consequently given out. 



Here and in the adjacent tree-covered areas one could 

 find sambhar, and the shikaris of these parts call the stags 

 out by imitating the rather shrill note of the hind. This 

 they do by placing a leaf fiat between the closed palms and 

 blowing on it edgeways, thus producing the doe's note to 

 perfection. We used to go out either before daybreak, so as 

 to get into position by dawn, or be in our place in the late 

 afternoon. There was one favourite hill of mine a mile or so 

 away from a planter friend's house. By proceeding east 

 along a mud road the neighbourhood of a nullah was 

 reached. This ravine was densely clothed with a magnifi- 

 cent and luxuriant tropical vegetation and incidentally was 

 full of fallen trees, monarchs whose day was done and past 

 and who gave a lot of trouble to the progress of the stalker. 

 An inspection of tracks here would almost invariably show 

 that there were sambhar on the slopes of the hills higher up. 

 The procedure then adopted was usually as follows : A man 

 would be sent on to scout whilst we slowly wended our way 

 up the nullah, wading through the water whenever it 

 became necessary. Sooner or later the man would return 

 and tell us he had marked down one or more sambhar. 



