248 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



with branches which again had given birth to trunks of 

 considerable girth, while the stem of the original tree 

 had utterly decayed away. Beneath its copious shade 

 were sheltered from the sun several tents, and numerous 

 servants, lascars, and Bheels, besides our horses, dogs, 

 etc. The grass on the lower hills had mostly been 

 burnt since we were last here, and the Mhowa flowers 

 had been falling for some time. Sambar nightly visited 

 some fine clumps of that tree in the bottom of the valley,, 

 a little higher up than the camp. 



The next morning we sent out about half-a-dozen 

 pairs of Bheels to look out on the hill tops long before 

 daybreak ; and soon after ourselves started up the 

 valley to a point where we intended to separate and 

 take different beats. A colony of monkeys in the 

 trees overhanging the river were " swearing " lustily 

 about half a mile to our left, and presently we found 

 the remains of a sambar that had been killed during 

 the night under the Mhowa trees by a tiger. The 

 brute himself was doubtless making off up the valley 

 when seen by the monkeys. Many sambar had been 

 feeding on the Mhowa, and fresh tracks led off in 

 almost all directions. Just where we were about to 

 separate a long spur ran down from the hills on the 

 right to the valley up which we were proceeding ; and 

 as we approached it we saw in the dim gray light a long 

 line of deer file over the top, each pausing for a second 

 on the sky line before passing over to the far side. 

 Watching them for a few seconds, we saw that they 

 were followed by a large stag at a good distance in the 

 rear. In fact, he had just commenced to climb the spur 

 when we saw him ; and at the same time he must have 

 seen us pausinoj on the path, for his leisurely walk then 



