i8o DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



searching for minute insects. And of insect life you will 

 find a plethora in the grass jungles. In the brilHant sun- 

 shine great gaudily decked butterflies float on burnished 

 scintillating wing, now flirting with the curtsying grass- 

 heads, now darting suddenly forwards, hovering for some 

 seconds and then sinking to rest on a shimmering leaf-tip. 

 Fast-flying skippers will flash past going at the hurrying 

 pace these insects appear to affect and which, combined 

 with their high-flying proclivities, makes their capture so 

 extremely difficult. BrilHant dragon-flies hawk over the 

 grass, their wings flashing in the sunlight as they swoop on to 

 their prey. And low down, down in the depths of the grass 

 masses, who can say what myriads of at present unclassified 

 insect hfe exist — life which, should it survive to reach the 

 systematist's table, may cause unconceived changes in his 

 classificatory systems. 



If the grass jungle is wonderful as seen from the back of 

 an elephant, it is little short of bewildering if one gets down 

 into it. Order the mahout to stop the elephant and make 

 him sit down. Slip out of the howdah or off the pad and 

 stand amidst the jungle itself ; sending the elephant and 

 mahout a short distance on, not too far if you ever wish to 

 get out again. Around you now rises a green wall pressing 

 on to you on every side. Far away above you as the breeze 

 blows over the tops you see the waving grass-heads, and 

 above again small patches and rifts of a deep blue sky. On 

 every side as you endeavour to pierce the screen you see 

 nothing but a dead green barrier of the thick grass-stems. 

 You can note that the grass grows in giant bunches, so to 

 speak, each great clump starting from a centre, its stems 

 radiating outwards and bending over as they reach the 

 upper levels. But so close are the clumps together that the 

 mass forms a continuous screen or wall. Move forward ten 

 paces, forcing your way between the clumps. The horizon 

 is the same on every side and you quickly realize that were 

 you to be left to your own devices in a big grass jungle, or 

 even in one of moderate size, you would stand a small 

 chance of getting out alive owing to man's extraordinary 

 tendency to walk in a circle if he has nothing he can recog- 

 nize to guide him. Soon a feeling of suffocation takes hold 

 of you, a dread that you will never get up out of this 

 appalling grass, and it is with a feeling of relief that one 

 climbs once again on to the back of the elephant. 



