THE SAL FORESTS. 399 



elephant. The etymology of many names, such as the 

 " elephant enclosure," the " elephant pool," etc., would 

 suffice to indicate this ; but, besides, we have it dis- 

 tinctly recorded, in that valuable work, the " Institutes 

 of Akber," that in the sixteenth century elephants were 

 found and captured in the Narbada valley as far west as 

 the Bijagarh and Haudid Sirkars,* which lie partly to 

 the west of the meridian of the present military stations 

 of Mhow and Asirgarh. This is probably the most 

 westerly range of the wild elephant that has been 

 recorded ; and their subsequent disappearance over so 

 large a tract of country speaks volumes for the advance- 

 ment which has taken place in that period. 



The night I was at Topla, two tigers roared loudly 

 round about the camp. We were pitched in a little 

 glade in the sea of grass, and the effect in the clear, cold 

 night was very fine. The night voice of the tiger lias a 

 very impressive sound, conveying, though not nearly so 

 loud as the bray of a jackass, the idea of immense 

 power, as it rolls and trembles along the earth. Four 

 months later, when I was encamped near Matin, in the 

 forests of the far east, I listened one night to the most 

 remarkable serenade of tigers I ever heard. A peculiar, 

 long wail, like the drawn-out mew of a huge cat, first rose 

 from a river course a few hundred yards below my tent. 

 Presently from a mile or so higher up the river came a 

 deep, tremendous roar, which had scarcely died away 

 ere it was answered from behind the camp by another, 

 pitched in a yet deeper tone, startling us from its 

 suddenness and proximity. All three were repeated at 

 short intervals, as the three tigers approached each 

 other along the bottoms of the deep, dry watercourses, 

 between and above which the camp had been pitched. 

 * Glad^yin's " Azeen Akbery," vol. ii. p. 249. 



