30 



Lastly in August, when the Kistnah river is very full, I was 011 

 field service from Hyderabad towards Cuddapah ; we marched 

 south of the old town of Daiwarcondah by a route troops had not 

 before been, and crossed the river at a place, name forgotten, where 

 the then mighty stream, narrowed between two mountains, wooded 

 to the water's edge, rushed like a sluice, so much so, that, out of 

 several elephants we had in camp, only two could be got across. I 

 was with a brother officer, sent at daylight the following morning 

 to see the baggage brought over. We were within fifty yards of 

 each other and waiting for the basket boats to cross from the oppo- 

 site side, when his attention was attracted by a round object, which 

 he at first took for a cocoanut, coming nearly directly over through 

 the floating sticks, &c., which after a " jresh" cover an Indian 

 river ; it came near and proved to be the head of a fine panther 

 which, landing close to the spot he stood on, got at once into the 

 densely-wooded hill which ran down to within a few yards of the 

 the water and was only separated from it by a bullock track. 

 On hearing his shout, I ran towards the spot, not in time to see the 

 animal, but to see the water filling the fresh foot prints it had left 

 in the mud on landing. Even had we not been on duty, following 

 the panther would have been impossible, but I pushed across at 

 once and, on examining the opposite bank, found not only the traces 

 where the beast had on this occasion taken the water, but where 

 it had done so on several previous days at various distances up and 

 down the bank. I do not think it could on this occasion have been 

 carried down much more than one hundred yards. That the force 

 of the stream was great, the simple fact of only two elephants 

 crossing will vouch, and a glance at the map will show that the 

 Kistnah about sixty or eighty miles after it receives the Toonga- 

 budra near Kurnool is, in the month of August, and when narrowed 

 by hills, a vast body of water for man or beast to cope with. 



The panther appeared on each occasion to have entered the 

 water from a large field of high millet. " Soorghum," the " jowari" 

 of the Northern and " cholum" of the Southern districts of the 

 Madras Presidency, which extended for some distance up the oppo- 

 site bank on which, as well as for some yards into the field, his 

 tracks on coming to and entering the river but not going from it 



