130 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



the animal being tracked down into some mud-hole where 

 he is wallowing, keeping off the flies and passing away the 

 heat of the day ; but such work is extremely arduous in 

 the terrific and enervating heat. I never had the chance 

 of trying it myself, which was disappointing, as I should 

 have liked to compare it with bison tracking in Chota 

 Nagpur, the Central Provinces and elsewhere. 



Further to the north in Assam and to the east a different 

 type of forest — the so-called " evergreen " forest — is met 

 with. These areas are still more impenetrable, canes, 

 creepers, bamboos, and tall grass forming dense thickets 

 beneath the high tree growth. Shooting in these jungles, 

 as already indicated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts which 

 have a similar type of forest, is an extremely difficult, 

 arduous and usually barren pastime. 



It was a glorious two years, those years spent in the 

 Tista Division. My work kept me down in the plains all 

 the cold weather. The country here is covered with inimit- 

 able stretches of tea cultivation interspersed with patches 

 of heavy jungle of varying size belonging either to the tea 

 gardens or under the management of the Forest Depart- 

 ment. Game at this period was abundant, although already 

 a note of alarm at its decrease was being sounded by the 

 older planters who were fond of descanting on its abundance 

 in the " good old days," as they called them. Of course 

 the clearances of great tracts of primeval forest and jungle 

 for tea cultivation would have a natural effect on the 

 distribution of the animals previously existing in the 

 locality, and the probability is that at the time I am writing 

 of the animals were nearly as abundant only they had 

 retired to a greater distance from the areas cleared for 

 cultural purposes. Anyway, at the period of my first 

 acquaintance with this area it was a paradise for sport. 

 Tiger may be said to have been plentiful, leopard numerous, 

 bison (gaur) not yet exterminated from these western areas, 

 and elephants yearly visitants in the monsoon months. In 

 fact some probably remained all the year round, retiring up 

 into the higher hills to the north during the hot weather 

 when the big horse-flies proved too much of a curse even 

 for the thick skins of these pachyderms. 



It was ever a source of interest to me to travel up into 

 the mountains from the plains forests by one of these 

 elephant paths or runs. Hollowed out or beaten down 



