120 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL IXDIA. 



some than tlie ascent. Many a time after this did I 

 tread the same path to reach this valley, where bison 

 were nearly always to be found, and many an effort did 

 I make to discover a shorter and less precipitous road. 

 But all in vain ; for the sheer ravines that everywhere 

 else hem in the flanks of the Dhiipgarh mountain render 

 a passage round it a matter of infinitely greater time and 

 toil than the way over the top. At the bottom of the 

 valley, below a shady grove of wild mango trees, where 

 the stream that drains the large valley has formed a 

 considerable pool in a rocky basin, I found assembled 

 three or four of the Eaj-Gond chiefs whose possessions 

 lie in the hills to the south of Puchmurree. They 

 differed not at all from him of Puchmurree, unless that 

 they were somewhat more intelligent and polished in 

 manner. Each had brought his small retinue of match- 

 lock men, and a large gang of common Gonds and 

 Korkiis to beat ; so that altogether we mustered some 

 twenty guns, and between two and three hundred- 

 beaters. The people were well acquainted with all the 

 beats and passes, having always several great hunts of 

 this sort during the year ; and everything had been 

 arranged before I came. The bulk of the beaters had 

 gone on hours before to surround the valley, and, as we 

 were a little later than was expected, it was likely that 

 they would already have commenced to beat. We lost 

 no time, therefore, in taking up our posts, which 

 stretched in a lone^ line risjht across the lower end of the 

 valley. First, however, I had to furnish powder to load 

 the whole of the matchlocks of my native friends ; and 

 had I not guessed that such would be the case, as usual, 

 I would certainly not have had sufticient in my flask. 

 Six fingers deep is the rule for these weapons, and it is 



