138 THE FIIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



as it led more nearly in the direction of home. The 

 wilderness of bamboo-covered hills and deep intervening 

 rocky-bottomed or swampy dells, over and through 

 which we carried that trail till the sun was gettinor low, 

 is beyond description. Every now and then we thought 

 we were just upon him, freshly-cropped bamboos and 

 droppings showing that he was not far in front. But 

 he had never stopped for long. This restlessness 

 I afterwards found to be the habit of bison which have 

 recently been disturbed. He was evidently making off 

 steadily for some distant retreat. We started several 

 herds of sambar and solitary stags, and once a bear 

 bustled out of a nala we were crossinof, and bundled off 

 down the hill-side ; but we were bent on nobler game 

 and durst not fire at them. By evening we had got 

 right to the further side of the great ravine beyond 

 Jambo-Dwip, and the peak of Dhiipgarh glowed pink 

 and distant in the rays of the declining sun. We were 

 descending a long slope among thin trees and high 

 yellow grass, and I was a little ahead of the rest, when 

 I suddenly saw the head and horns of a bison looking 

 at me over a low thicket, and was putting up my rifle to 

 fire when, with a loud snort, the owner wheeled round, 

 and plunging noisily down the hill disappeared. This 

 snort, which sounds like a strong expulsion of air 

 through the nostrils, is very commonly uttered by 

 bison when suddenly disturbed, and is the only sound 

 I ever heard from them, except a low menacing moan, 

 which I have heard a bull utter when suspicious of 

 approaching danger, and the quivering bellow which 

 they sometimes emit in common with most other 

 animals when in articulo. I ran to the edge of what 

 proved to be a deepish ravine full of bamboos, and was 



