94 ELEPHANT AND BISON 



he not been put out of the way. Still, I do not 

 think I should care to shoot another, glad as I am 

 to have got one. I must say I was rather gratified 

 to have shot both my bison and my elephant on foot 

 and in perfectly open ground. I suppose if I stop 

 here much longer I am bound to be pinched, as 

 shooting on foot is undoubtedly dangerous. But 

 in my opinion there is no sport like it in the world, 

 and it has completely spoilt me for shooting from 

 a machdn or from a howdah. It is the danger 

 and the dependence on one's own steadiness and 

 straight shooting which is so attractive. 



I had gone up to the Cardamom Hills from one 

 end of the range, and having crossed from one end 

 to the other, a matter of some hundred miles, I 

 descended into the plain at the other end and came 

 down a precipitous path into Cumbur Valley, a 

 magnificent, well-watered and highly cultivated 

 plain of great extent, lying between the two ranges. 

 In Cumbur I lunched at the house of a native 

 timber merchant, who has most considerately 

 built a bungalow for the use of Europeans who may 

 be travelling in that part of the country. From 

 Cumbur I rode to the next rest-house, where I 

 passed the night, recrossing the Taine River, and 

 made my way back to Kodaikanal, which I 

 reached on Saturday the I2th after a most exhaust- 

 ing bullock transit journey of some sixty miles. 

 My next stopping-place was Madura, celebrated 

 for its temple, one of the most sacred, and certainly 

 the most imposing I have seen in India. There 

 are two temples much in the same style, one being 

 used as a market. The stone carvings are on a 

 gigantic scale and very striking, but both the 



