66 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



that he was not in the immediate neighbourhood, it 

 was resolved that one of us should watch the 

 carcass in case he might return, whilst the other 

 two went further on, to look for elephant spoor. 

 We tossed up to see who should remain, and the 

 doctor won the toss ; so w^e set to work and built 

 him a kind of raised platform amid the branches of 

 a tree within easy range, into which he mounted 

 with one of Fred's people, whilst we continued our 

 route down the stream. Nothing could exceed the 

 beauty of the river, that formed a succession of 

 very black and deep pools, connected with each 

 other by foaming currents, in which now and again 

 we saw large fish leap, which Fred declared were 

 mahseer. The banks were fringed with clumps of 

 overhanging bamboos, and every turn presented 

 a view Avhich was worthy of a halt to enjoy. 

 Clusters of forest trees in all their primeval majesty 

 were laced and bound together by an infinity of 

 wild vines, forming immense bowers, which would 

 have been no unsuitable abode for Bacchus and his 

 train ; whilst the gigantic elephant creeper hung 

 in festoons like cables from trunks upwards of a 



