REMINISCENCES OF JUNGLYPUR 209 



see were extending down its slopes. From the elevation 

 at which I now sat about 3,000 feet and, perhaps 1,800 

 above the plain a charming panorama lay unfolded at my 

 feet. Ridge on ridge of queer, knife-edged saddle-backs of 

 the curious trap formation, a warm yellow in the light, with 

 deep purple shadows ; from my feet the mountain-side 

 trended steeply down, clad with teak poles, salai thickets, 

 and clumps of small bamboo, to the valley, a sister glen to 

 the Am khdra, which now lay at my back, rising again 

 to the level Banur plateaux, yellow with long spear-grass ; 

 while beyond the sharply defined chasms and ridges of the 

 hills across the Barhdnpur valley the cone-shaped peak of 

 the Ch6r Pahar cut the clear blue cold-weather sky a bold 

 wedge. 



Away to my right lay the level blue horizon of the 

 plains, the minute white walls of the magazine and other 

 buildings of Junglypur shining remotely distant in the 

 morning sun, marking the spot where the little canton- 

 ment lay nestling in its embowering groves of trees. 



From the higher ballas y or flat hilltops around, came 

 the sharp, strident calls of the hill-loving painted part- 

 ridge. 



As I admired these beautiful surroundings, and drank in 

 the light and invigorating hill air, those white dots, the 

 beaters, were gradually working along towards me. At 

 length they reached and entered the kagdr, in which I felt 

 that the stag and his hind must have halted Their distant 

 shouts mingled with the crashing of boulders which rolled 

 from above went thundering and bounding downhill. 

 Suddenly the dark form of the hind issued from a thick 

 coppice. She trotted along the hillside, and halted, her big 

 ears moving to and fro in suspense ; then she began to 

 clamber at a lumbering canter straight towards me. On 

 she came, and in about a minute there rang out a sharp 

 trumpet note of alarm, and a shower of stones rattled 

 downhill, as she changed her direction on sighting or 

 P 



