214 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



sign of it had been seen. They were positive that, 

 since it was not in the ground which they had 

 just covered, it must be lying up in a smaller strip 

 of forest between the bridle - path and the Perak 

 river. 



After some short deliberation and argument they 

 went off without further delay to drive, and we 

 stationed ourselves at intervals through the forest. 

 There was no time to clear any lines nor to erect 

 platforms in the trees. We took up positions on 

 foot, arranging ourselves in such order as we could, 

 and each man knew, though he could not see, the 

 situation of his neighbours on either side. At the 

 place where the beaters formed into line the bridle- 

 path was about a mile from the river ; while at the 

 point where guns were stationed, about a mile 

 farther up-stream, river and path were within three 

 hundred yards of one another. The ground to be 

 beaten was thus a triangle: the beaters were at its 

 base and the guns at the apex. Behind the line of 

 guns river and path diverged again, and between 

 them lay a vast expanse of dense, heavily timbered 

 forest for which it was thought that the tiger would 

 make. We had not been long in our places before 

 the beaters began to advance towards us. I studied 

 the lie of the forest in my vicinity and the approaches 

 by which an animal would be likely to come in my 

 direction, and then fell to watching an interminable 

 string of little black ants at my feet. They were 

 migrating, but I could not see whence they came or 

 whither they were going. The line that they fol- 

 lowed was extraordinarily devious: up one side and 



