368 EXTRACTS FROM 
tumbling along between high banks of brown earth, the 
sudden appearance of this singular scene being most sur- 
prising. Here we had to leave our horses and scramble down 
the steep slope to the water, the saltness of which was a great 
disappointment. We then proceeded up the very narrow 
gully until we got to a small valley surrounded by almost 
perpendicular walls of clay several feet high, and filled up 
with marshy patches of grass, low bushes, and a reed 
swamp, the only outlet from it being a narrow trail which 
wound up the slope to the ridge on the left. 
Salim now told us to station ourselves on the opposite side 
of the reeds, while he beat them with his men and dogs; but 
before we had reached our posts a large sow left the thick 
cover and took the only means of exit by the hill-track, 
climbing it with the agility of a chamois, and uninjured by 
several shots which were fired at it from a distance of about 
four hundred yards. I now ran quickly towards this pass, 
which the beasts were obliged to take, and was still a couple 
of hundred paces from it, when a big boar took to the narrow 
path. I sent a couple of balls into his hide, but neither of 
them proved fatal, and the badly wounded animal slowly 
dragged itself over the mountain-ridge with an injured hind 
leg. 
The beaters now came running up, and I took care to make 
them keep a certain distance behind me, as I wished to follow 
up the traces of blood myself. 
At first I found the fresh tracks of a panther, and imme- 
diately afterwards those of the wounded boar, with plenty of 
blood. I soon reached the crest of the hill, where I had a 
splendid view of a valley not very broad, but rich in vegeta- 
tion of all kinds—bushes, meadows, and high trees—and 
enclosed on its further side by steep earthy slopes. 
Still following the tracks and the traces of blood, I hurried 
down the very abrupt hillside to the bottom of the valley, and 
