438 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



they believe themselves powerless to break through, 

 especially as they are assailed with all the din of battle 

 if they approach too near, so that it is a sheer case of 

 despemtioD, or gross carelessness, or a weak establish- 

 ment, if they succeed in getting out. From a neigh- 

 bouring camp the scene is excitiug enough, for the hill- 

 side resounds wdth shouting, and the discharge of blank 

 ammunition seems incessant, partly from necessity, and 

 partly from the inherent atiection an Asiatic has for 

 noise. All this time the stockade is progressing, made 

 of immense piles of wood, capable of standing any 

 charge, and enclosing a few hundred square yards of 

 ground. The elephant runs are clearly marked-out 

 tracks, to which they usually keep. The stockade is on 

 one of them, with an open gate at one extremity, from 

 which an injnieuse arm of piled logs stretches on either 

 side, so that the rush may be, once the arms are entered, 

 into the single opening that has been left. The first 

 day after the stockade is finished the driving commences. 

 If fortune smiles, once the herd is started by shouting 

 and firing in tlieir rear, they make a rush for the 

 stockade run and are enclosed without further trouble ; 

 if not, they require to be driven several times — a 

 service often of difficulty and danger. When enclosed, 

 the decoy elephants with trained men are employed for 

 noosing and tying them." 



An enormous area of the tract we travelled over, in 

 the neighbourhood of the Hasdii river and its tributaries, 

 was fjund to be full of coal measures, which have since 

 been professionally examinee], and reported to furnish 

 mineral uf a highly valuable character. But the 

 extreme remoteness of these regions from any of the 

 great centres of commerce or transp(jrt puts out of 

 the question any immediate utilisation either of th 



