Jungle By -Ways in India 



And even then, whilst swaying along on the 

 elephant to the beat, you will find it chilly enough. 

 And cold will it be for the first hour or two, 

 sitting in one's stand and silently waiting for 

 what fortune will send. Not till the sun has 

 topped yonder mountain-spur at about 8.30 shall 

 we get much warmth into our bones. From then 

 onwards, however, till its decline in the soft, rosy, 

 pale-tinted sky of the cold-weather evening, the 

 temperature will be glorious the finest that can 

 be found anywhere. 



One sits silently in the broad, stony river- 

 bed, in which the guns have been placed at 

 intervals of about 100 yards or so apart, and 

 patiently awaits the distant voices of the beaters 

 to commence the business of the day. Often 

 during these waits in the early morning may 

 be seen evidences of the game one has come in 

 search of. 



At times a rattle of stones or soft pattering 

 behind proclaims that, all unbeaten, game is 

 afoot in the forest and is on the trek back to 

 some well-known, shady, secluded retreat, in 

 which the warm hours of the winter day will be 

 passed in a lazy, somnolent peace. Without a 

 movement of the body the head is slowly turned 

 to see what is happening, and there in Indian file 

 away to the right is a small herd of chitul. Follow- 

 ing one another in a somewhat straggling Indian 

 file, they come out of the jungle, though each will 



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