THE MAHADEO HILLS. 109 



building would be impossible at Puclimurree, could have 

 been brought and so conveniently deposited at an 

 elevation of at least 2,000 feet above the nearest 

 formation of the kind. Though I believe I have at one 

 time or other been in almost every other ravine in these 

 hills, I never found another piece of limestone but one 

 — a smaller boulder of the same sort, similarly situated, 

 but at a rather lower elevation. 



The young Thakur came back in a day or two, with 

 about half-a-dozen Korkiis from the neighbouring hills, 

 and news of a herd of bison in the Banganga Valley, 

 behind and below the high peak of Dhupgarh ; so I 

 determined to have our grand hunt in that place. 

 Invitations were sent to all the Gond and Korkii chiefs 

 in the neighbourhood, with their followers, and every 

 available man in the hills was sent for to beat. A store 

 of grain enough to feed them all was sent down to the 

 little hamlet at the bottom of the Rorighat pass, where 

 the beat was expected to end ; and one of the Puch- 

 murree grog-shops was taken bodily down to the same 

 place to supply the drinkables. 



In after days I spent many a long day in the chase 

 of the bison on these splendid hills ; and have also made 

 the acquaintance of the mountain bull in many other 

 parts of the province. Some account of his habits may, 

 therefore, not be out of place here, particularly as they 

 are frequently a good deal misrepresented. And first 

 as to his name. The latest scientific name for him is 

 Gavceus Gaurus, but what he is to be called in English 

 is not so easily settled. Sportsmen have unanimously 

 agreed to call him the " Indian bison," which naturalists 

 ■object to, as he does not properly belong to the same 

 group of bovines as the bisons of Europe and America. 



