338 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



consisted of tigers, bears, sambar, and spotted deer ; 

 and I found that all these were really attainable in no 

 small numbers. The sambar and bears lived on the hill 

 ranges on either side of the river ; while the spotted 

 deer, as usual, kept to the banks of the river, where a 

 network of ravines, covered with clumps of bamboo, 

 afforded them the plentiful shade and abundance of 

 water they delight in. In attendance on them was the 

 tio-er, who revelled in the abundance of game then con- 

 crreo-ated about the river. The herds of cattle and 

 buffaloes that w^ere grazing in the valley were seldom 

 touched, excepting in one place, where I found a family 

 of tigers wholly subsisting upon them ; but nearly every 

 day we stumbled on the remains of spotted deer, sambar, 

 and nilgai, which had fallen victims to the destroyer. 

 The destroyer himself, however, kept, with a good deal 

 of success, out of our way. I was too green a hand to 

 hunt him then with the silent perseverance which alone 

 ensures success, and could rarely resist a promising shot 

 at other game on the distant chance of finding a tiger. 

 Nor do I think that Mr. Bamanjee much desired to have 

 very many interviews with his jungle majesty. Spotted 

 deer were in immense numbers, and the bucks were every- 

 w^here bellowing along the banks, and in the bamboo- 

 covered ravines that radiate from the river. It was 

 very easy to shoot the poor brutes at that time, the best 

 plan being to embark in a canoe dug out of a single log, 

 and paddle slowly down the reaches a little way from 

 the bank, between daybreak and ten or eleven o'clock. 

 The air of repose worn by the wdiole scene at that time 

 is scarcely broken by the movement of animal life. The 

 lazy plunge of a crocodile, the eddying rise of a great 

 fish, the hover of a gem-like kingfisher, the easy flight 

 of the dark, square-winged buzzard, all add to, rather 



