168 BEAUTIFUL SCENE. 



ridge above the bit of cover the surrow had entered, I pro- 

 ceeded to take up a position commanding as much of the 

 steep broken ground below it as possible, thinking that the 

 animal would be certain to make for the dense ringals at 

 the bottom of the gorge. At last one of the men appeared 

 on the ridge, and pointing significantly towards the bushes, 

 soon drove the animal out by flinging down a stone. But 

 the cunning brute must have detected me below, for instead 

 of coming downwards, as I had every reason to expect, it 

 took a slant upwards, and never stopped until it disappeared 

 over the sky-line far away at the head of the glen ; so I had 

 once more to return dejectedly to the tents. 



That evening one of the men reported his having seen, in 

 the gloaming, a surrow moving among the oak-trees near the 

 head of the glen, when fetching water for camp from a spring 

 there, probably the animal we had driven from its usual 

 haunt returning to rejoin its companion. For surrow seem to 

 be very domestic in their habits, with respect to their family 

 ties ; but as their homes are rather extensive and difficult of 

 access, an interview with them is by no means easy to obtain. 



Next day being Sunday, we gave ourselves and the sur- 

 row a rest. As we reclined on the grass near our tents, 

 enjoying the cool evening breeze and looking down on the 

 forest-clad Doon 4000 feet below, the prospect was singu- 

 larly beautiful. The sun was sinking, like a fiery red ball, 

 in the haze that dimmed the distant plain stretching away 

 beyond the low irregular line of the Sewalik hills ; whilst 

 behind us, over the tree-tops, rose the pale full moon like a 

 huge silver globe. Again the surrow was seen just before 

 dark by our men who were fetching water, so I determined 

 to organise a regular beat through the gorge on the morrow. 



Early next morning I worked over some old landslips 

 eastward of our camp, the long steep slopes of which, where 

 not too rocky and precipitous, were now clothed with spear- 

 grass and brushwood, interspersed here and there with oak 

 and cheer-trees. 1 On one of my previous visits to this 



1 The cheer-tree (Pinus longifolia) much resembles the Scotch fir, but with 



