g6 GAME AND WEATHER. 



flies are bad, during certain months, deer, and many 

 other kinds of forest animals run before them and 

 move away to the hills, or to the higher slopes of the 

 mountain ranges, where any such are within reach. 

 While other sorts of animals, such as the Indian and 

 African buffalo, will resort to the waters and wallow 

 in their muddy shallows, in order that the coating of 

 mud and slime which adheres to their skins may form 

 a protection against these pests. Cold weather and the 

 approach of winter will, on the other hand, drive most 

 kinds of game down from the hills into the shelter of 

 the heavy timber. Then if there is a long dry season, 

 as in some of the Indian and African forests, the 

 drying up of streams and pools may at certain times 

 of the year cause whole districts of country which 

 were full of game while water was plentiful, to be 

 entirely abandoned by almost every living creature. 

 The migratory game then congregate, perhaps in very 

 large numbers, in the neighbourhood of the principal 

 waters whose sources are inexhaustible. In this latter 

 description of arid country most of the forest generally 

 consists of dwarf and thorny trees and constitutes the 

 regular bush jungle, which covers vast areas in many 

 sub-tropical lands; and in spots it is often of a very 

 dense and impenetrable character; in other places it 

 assumes the form of a high grass jungle, consisting of 

 bamboos and other giant grasses, which, when the 

 drought has been for some time intense, become as dry 

 as tinder. Those sections of country which still 

 remain in such districts covered with a dense growth 

 of heavy timber, are generally of a damp, well 

 watered character, and are sure to be more or less 

 copiously supplied with springs, where water is found 



