236 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



One hot morning in May the writer and a companion 

 had entered the jungle to investigate certain rumours that 

 we had heard as to the presence of a tiger in the Ambadoh 

 ravine. Ambadoh, the "pool by the Mango tree," is a 

 delightful little spot in the Junglypur hills, and its ex- 

 tremely picturesque glen goes twisting and winding down 

 between steep hillsides to join a large tributary of the 

 distant Tapti. These jungles are, during the summer 

 droughts, very bare, and the white and shrivelled grass 

 exceedingly hot and choking ; but here and there a pipal 

 or banyan casts its grateful shade, and, in combination 

 with certain charmingly secluded pools, overhung by lines 

 of trees and evergreen undergrowth, serves to offer suffi- 

 cient attraction to wandering felines. 



H. and I passed the mango pool and went about a 

 couple of miles downstream, quietly pottering along dry 

 stretches of boulders and examining sand and dust for 

 the necessary tracks. At a spot where a considerable 

 tributary ndla joins the main ravine lies a narrow bay 

 of level soil, rather raised above the level of the floods ; 

 and here grows much long " burroo " grass, shaded by a few 

 small new-leaved mhowa trees. Not far from the border 

 of this little strath rises a spreading banyan ; in the river- 

 bed below lie some delectable pools. Soothed by the 

 sylvan beauties of this spot, H. and I repaired to the 

 water's edge, and, reclining in the shade, masticated a 

 biscuit and raised aloft the pleasantly-gurgling water- 

 bottle. 



Anon, refreshed, we continued our prowl, and about 

 fifty yards further on regarded with pleasure what we 

 had come to see the pugs of a tigress ; but we failed 

 to mark the prints of some smaller pads, or passed 

 them by as those of hyaena or other lesser beast of the 

 forest. 



Up to this point we had been accompanied by four 

 Korkus, whom we had met on their way to cut bamboos, 



