A HUNTER'S PARADISE 53 



intervals that year extended over some nine hundred square 

 miles, such a record would not have been without its useful 

 side. 



It was not only in the rains that the animals were so 

 plentiful. At that season, when food and water were to be 

 had in abundance everywhere, the animals roamed through- 

 out the whole length and breadth of the vast jungles. In 

 the hot weather they were more restricted, as the vegeta- 

 tion died down under the fierce heat of the sun and the 

 streams dried up, leaving only pools. At this season these 

 water-holes and the perennial streams which maintained a 

 much reduced flow of water were the places to visit. 

 In the evening, throughout the night, and early morning 

 such places were the rendezvous of an extraordinary 

 concourse of the jungle folk, and it was quite possible to 

 arrive at some estimate of the numbers of the different 

 classes of animals present in the surrounding tract of 

 country. As the hot weather drew to its close the ground 

 in the neighbourhood of these drinking places became 

 trampled down into a shining, stony consistence, the surface 

 showing a network of fine lines and curves left v by the 

 impress of the hoofs of the innumerable animals resorting 

 to the drinking places to quench their thirst. 



Here again such figures as might be given, relative to 

 the numbers of the various species probably existing in 

 these jungles at that time, would scarce be credited in the 

 light of the more or less accurately estimated numbers of 

 the various species inhabiting the tracts at the present time. 

 From my own personal observations made in the late 

 nineties it can be said that considerable numbers of wild 

 elephants were present in these forests and large herds of 

 bison, whilst sambhar were very plentiful, big heads, forty 

 inches, being fairly common. Spotted deer, barking deer, 

 and four-horned antelope were numerous, as also pig, hyena, 

 wild dog, and so forth. Tiger and leopard, though difficult 

 to get at, were plentiful. Bear in the more open country, 

 as already mentioned, were easily obtainable. 



As has been said, shooting in the Chota Nagpur jungles 

 is done on foot, and if one wishes to track the bison with 

 any chance of success it is absolutely essential to keep in 

 hard and fit condition. One will almost certainly have to 

 spend hours on end tracking, exposed to a hot sun. Camp 

 may be quitted at two or three in the morning, and should 



