Jungle By- Ways in India 



We had been going nearly seven hours, and that 

 in the greenhouse temperature of a sunny July 

 day in this part of the world. 



At noon we are again on our feet, and strike 

 eastwards down a prominent spur of this range 

 for the country beneath. I was following Bishu 

 down the steep slope, when he suddenly jumped 

 aside and lifted one foot. I had already stepped 

 in his tracks, but skipped out of them with 

 promptitude. He had been bitten on the instep 

 by a snake. The brute, some 3 feet in length, 

 was not apparently a dangerous one (my know- 

 ledge of the reptilia was at the time insufficient 

 to enable me to determine this), as Bishu, picking 

 a leaf of some low herbaceous plant, rubbed the 

 drop or two of blood from his instep and held on 

 his way. The heavy shooting-boots and gaiters I, 

 in my ignorance, wore in my griffin days when 

 stalking, as at other times, had protected me, 

 though I had trodden heavily on the snake. 

 Sambhar skin uppers and rope soles are, by the 

 way, the boots for stalking-work in the country I 

 am describing, save in the rains, when rubber soles 

 or a light pair of ' footer ' boots are necessary. 

 Rope soles are, of course, useless in the wet. 



At the base of this spur we came upon a great 

 mound of rubbish, with a small burrow in it. I 

 could not imagine what on earth it could be, and 

 in my thirst for knowledge of all jungle lore I 

 turned to Bishu. He told me it was a wild boar's 



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