THE JUNGLES OF CHOTA NAGPUR 7 



test sooner or later ended in the defeat of the jungle man 



and his departure for the outskirts of the great forest 



tracts, where he had a better 



chance of combining, through 



greater numbers, against animal 



foes ; although he was here 



certain to suffer more from the 



depredations of the human 



sharks who found him such 



easy prey. 



Such was the history of the 

 clearing, and in the course of 

 my wanderings in these jungles 

 I came across others. Some, 

 relapsed into forest conditions 

 once more, were already covered 

 with a fine crop of thriving 

 young sal poles, the size of the latter enabling a shrewd 

 guess to be made as to the date the former occupiers of 

 the clearing had vacated it or all died of fever. For this 

 tract of country holds a deadly malaria in its forests 

 throughout the rainy season. 



To return to the bison. 



The tracks skirted the clearing and proceeded through a 

 thick piece of forest beyond until they reached a beautiful 

 little stream, the Koina. Up this stream we quietly pro- 

 ceeded for about a mile, a succession of lovely views opening 

 out before us. The stream at this part was of fair size, and 

 for the most part flowed over a rock-bed. Consequently 

 cataracts, rapids and miniature waterfalls, alternating 

 with deep, silent pools, most tempting to the eye of the 

 fisherman, were numerous. Or again we came to places 

 where the stream flowed in a long, silent reach between 

 terraces clothed here and there with beautiful brakes or 

 clumps of the feathery bamboo, interspersed with the 

 great red columns of magnificent, giant, old sal trees, upon 

 which the morning light played with an indescribably 

 beautiful effect. The great trees were festooned with thick 

 ropes of creeper growth, whilst beneath, in glades where 

 the forest floor was more open, the short grass was in 

 places almost reminiscent of the soft, deep, velvety turf 

 of a home park. Here the stalking was pure joy. It was 

 gloriously cool under the shade of the great trees, and a 



