AX EXPLORATION IN THE FAR EAST. 405 



and my future companion in this expedition — Captain 

 B., of Her Majesty's Regiment. Thence we pro- 

 ceeded to the eastern and southern forests, marching 

 rapidly to get from one portion of these forests to 

 another, where days and weeks would be passed in 

 tramping about the hills and making notes, the great 

 part of which would possess no interest for the general 

 reader. We never allowed ourselves to linger for sport ; 

 but the herds of buffaloes are in some parts of this 

 country so numerous that it would have been almost 

 impossible to avoid encountering them. 



The extreme western range of the wild buffalo* in 

 Central India is almost exactly marked by the 80th 

 meridian of longitude, ur in physical features by the 

 Wyn-Ganga tributary oi tie Godavari river, and below 

 their junction almost by the latter river itself. I say 

 almost, because in a trip down the Godavari river 

 which I made during the rains, I saw the tracks of 

 a herd of buffaloes on the western side of that river, at 

 the "third barrier "t south of the station of Chanda, 

 that is, a short distance to the west of the 80th 

 meridian. The Udtives, however, told me there that 

 they only cross the river in the rainy season, and that 

 they do not penetrate very far to the west, so that 

 so slight an exception may fairly be held to prove 

 the general rule. So far, then, from the common adage 

 of the sportsman being true that the wild buffalo does 



* Bicbalus ami. 



t These " barriers " are points in the course of this river where 

 its otherwise still, lake-like character is broken by spaces in which 

 the river assumes more the character of a mountain stream. They 

 interrupt what would otherwise be an unbroken stretch of water-way 

 into the heart of the country, and are now being dealt with by a 

 staff of skilful engineers. Probably a herd of buffaloes would find it 

 easier to cross at one of these barriers than elsewhere. 



