Jungle By-Ways in India 



right. He was within a few yards, and I just got 

 a snapshot view of him as he bounded away. He 

 need not have troubled, as we were in search of 

 lordlier game than he. The direction in which the 

 bison had proceeded soon took us out of the 

 heavy bamboo jungle in which we had put them up 

 so unwittingly ; and but for the swampiness of 

 the forest hereabouts, the going would have been 

 comparatively easy. My excitement grew as we 

 got out into the more open jungle, as one now 

 had some hopes of being able to see one's game- 

 hide-and-seek with a herd of bison in thick forest 

 being a form of pastime a trifle trying even to the 

 best of nerves. Cold and wet and dirt (between 

 heavy mist, tropical showers, and miry bogs I was 

 by now in a sorry plight as regards appearance ; 

 but who thinks of that when the game is afoot 

 and when that game is bison ?) and the worries of 

 bugs and thorns, not to omit friend Anopheles, all 

 passed unnoticed now as we stole onwards, search- 

 ing carefully every portion of the forest. It must 

 have been well over an hour later when we again 

 came up with the herd. There was a slight fall in 

 the ground, the forest being of fairly open charac- 

 ter. A little distance ahead was one of those 

 partial openings or natural clearings, consisting of 

 heavy boggy soil covered with a crop of coarse 

 3-foot high grass and scattered clumps of bushes, 

 which were common to the forests of this part of 

 India. The bison were grazing near the far end of 



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