390 THE HIGHLAXDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



arc called by natives, and often by Europeans) may 

 be shot by beating the grass with elephants in the 

 manner before described. During the height of the 

 cold weather many parts of this tract can hardly be 

 traversed except on an elephant ; and in such places 

 shooting would otherwise be impossible, owing to the 

 height and thickness of the grass jungle. In the course 

 of a day's beating of this sort in the Mandla district 

 a very great variety of game may easily be met 

 with. On one occasion, when spending Christmas 

 with two friends in the lovely Matiari valley, a day's 

 march east of the station of Mandla, we secured, I 

 think, a specimen of nearly every kind of game to 

 be found in the country, excepting the bison and 

 the panther. On the 26th we marched from a place 

 called Bartola to Gobri, both on the Matiari — a clear 

 sparkling stream that here runs through a valley, filled 

 with long grass cover, and bounded on either side by 

 chains of low hills, flat on the tops, and clothed with 

 low tree jungle and bamboos on their sides. We took 

 separate lines, F. going by the pathway, D. along the 

 tops of the hills on one side, while I beat along the 

 river below on an elephant. 1 had not gone far before 

 I put up a large herd of sambar in long grass, and, 

 firing right and left, dropped one small stag, and heavily 

 wounded a very large fellow with splendid antlers and 

 as black as a buff'alo. I got off", and tracked the 

 wounded animal for about three miles by his blood, 

 through the long, dewy grass, till I was as thoroughly 

 wetted through as if I had been wading in a tank, 

 when, as the deer had reached heavy bamboo cover, and 

 seemed to be still strong, I gave it up, and again made 

 for the river. On the way I came on a herd of red deer, 

 graziug about in an opening in the low jungle, where a 



