240 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



The behaviour of the jungle men in not letting us know 

 of the presence of the tigress was quite in keeping with 

 their character, but it might have resulted in a melancholy 

 incident for me ; for the tigress, having been already 

 excited, was much more likely to " go for " one on being 

 disturbed a second time at such very close quarters. 



During the rainy season June to September there is, 

 in our parts, little to be done in the way of shikar. The 

 extremely tenacious state of the wet "black cotton" soil, 

 which is also covered with tall crops of millet and cotton, 

 precludes enjoyment of sport on the plains. In the dis- 

 tance the hills are seen smothered in dense fogs or driving 

 rain-storms. When the clouds roll temporarily away, they 

 stand out soft-wooded with rolling vegetation, and tinted 

 of a wondrous blue. 



Up there, just now, the jungle is extremely dense. The 

 long green grass is, in many places, high over one's head, 

 and soaking wet. Every forest tree and bush is in full 

 leaf. Animals are scattered everywhere, wandering as 

 they will, without restraint as to water or sufficient covert. 



Sambar are practically all in velvet, although here and 

 there some mature old stag may possibly be found in hard 

 horn, which he has not shed as usual during the preceding 

 month of March or early April. To leave the beaten 

 track, or the more open short-grassed plateaux, is to dive 

 into a luxuriant and dense undergrowth, matted and 

 knotted together with heavy foot-tangle and the snaky 

 tendrils of the giant Bauhinia creeper ; while fallen and 

 rotting tree-trunks, rocks, and holes impede the difficult 

 way, and disgorge battalions of the voracious grey-striped 

 mosquito, who buzzes in his myriads under the dense 

 shade cast by the large umbrella-like leaves of the taklai, 

 bastard teak, teak, and other rain-breaking trees. 



In the larger teak forests the undergrowth is perhaps a 

 little less dense ; but the grass is often much longer. 



The huge rough leaves of the teak, flapping and scraping 



