i26 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



source of the Narbada, to which I took the reader at the 

 opening of this chapter. 



Many wikl animals had their haunts in the wooded 

 sloping skirts of the hill. The harsh, grating roar of the 

 panther was heard nearly every night ; sambar deer were 

 sometimes seen picking their way up the hill from the 

 plains in the early morning ; and once I saw a black bear 

 hurrying up the rocks to his cavern long after the sun 

 had risen. Gangs of Hanuman monkeys stalked about 

 the ruined ramparts and the precipice they crowned. 

 On the top were many hares, peafowl, and painted 

 partridges ; and my dogs had endless chases after the 

 yellow wild cat,* and the tree cat,t which were both 

 more numerous on this hill than anywhere else I have 

 seen them. Once when strolling round the camp in the 

 dusk, looking for a shot at the green pigeons, which 

 every night came to feed on the wild fruits, I saw 

 a pair of gleaming eyes looking down on me from the 

 dark shadow of an overhanging banyan tree ; and a 

 charge of No. 4 brought down among the dogs a fine red 

 lynx, I which they soon despatched in his wounded con- 

 dition. It takes hard fio;htingj for the best of dog-s 

 to kill an unwounded lynx, as my pack knew to their 

 cost. 



I pined sadly over my imprisonment on the top of 

 this hill. The climate was milder by many degrees 

 than it had been below, with no hot wind, even at this 

 height of the summer season ; and it was in particular 

 delightfully cool at night. Cut there were only a few 

 weeks remaining of the dry season ; and we had to 

 march nearly two hundred miles after leaving the 

 elephant country to get into Jubbulpur ; so as soon as I 



* F. cJiaus. t Paradoxus musanga. 



\ F. Caragal. 



