REMINISCENCES OF JUNGLYPUR 229 



rifle- practice going on at the range far out on the plains 

 below. 



The scenery of these hills is well worth a stiff climb. 

 I suppose it is the distance-annihilating atmosphere of 

 India that renders them so comparatively insignificant 

 when viewed from afar, since, during the rainy season, 

 their summits, standing out above cloudland, assume their 

 truer proportions. The visitor to these regions will be 

 surprised to note the extent and depth of the chasm-like 

 ravines, and the bulk and height of the elevated plateaux 

 that lift their shoulders in all directions. Some of the 

 higher peaks are composed of sharp and splintered basaltic 

 rock inhabited by troops of langur monkeys. At this 

 season of early December the long grass is still green and 

 luxuriant, its surface matted with the peculiar black 

 bunches of ripening seeds which constitute the highly 

 unpopular " spear-grass "; and the sportsman, if he be wise, 

 will wear breeches made of good, new, stiff, khaki drill. 

 Later on the spear-grass seed dries, and the tiny barbs, 

 each of them a seed, drop to the earth. If the dry grass be 

 parted after this has taken place the surface of the ground 

 under it will be found thickly covered with a soft and furry 

 brown fluff composed of these seeds a wonderful provision 

 of Nature against their total destruction by fire. When 

 the big grass fires of the hot weather sweep over these 

 tindery expanses the flame rushes by, merely scorching 

 the upper layers of this fluff; and with the first heavy rain 

 of the monsoon these solitudes are quickly reclothed in 

 green. 



The prevailing tree here is the salai> the light, graceful 

 foliage of which is still unshed, and we may detect, here 

 and there, one of their trunks standing red and frayed 

 the work of a sambar stag who has been cleaning the 

 " velvet " off his itching horns against it. 



As we climb up slowly out of the deep valley there 

 stretches out a rolling mountain region that is all our own, 



