94 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



Composed for the most part of waist-high lemon-grass, 

 studded with copsewood, amid which here and there rises 

 the handsome, oak- like, sweet-flowering mhou<a, these 

 reserves are usually traversed by a sandy ndla, in which 

 will be found one or two perennial pools. These winding 

 watercourses are fringed by a strip of the larger woodland 

 trees, such as the mango, kowa, banyan, anjan, etc. ; and 

 the ground is, for the greater part, a dead flat, rendering it 

 no difficult matter for one unacquainted with its few 

 natural features to lose his way, although not seriously, 

 yet in a manner sufficiently exhausting under an Indian 

 summer sun. 



Fairly level ground, shade, water, the proximity of some 

 cultvation, and the usually undisturbed quiet of their 

 solitude, render these small forest blocks quite excep- 

 tionally suited to the requirements of the graceful chital, 

 and of truly wondrous numbers of hog, which, in their 

 turn, serve to attract the felines that prey on them. 

 As -a rule, at least a couple of tigers and a family 

 or two of panthers were to be found in each of those 

 bandis. 



The writer will long remember the first early morning 

 stroll he took in one of those delightful bits of woodland. 

 We were engaged in visiting a distant corner of the forest, 

 where two of our ti^er-baits had been tied out the previous 

 evening, and after a cup of coffee had left camp, on foot, 

 at the earliest flush of the " false dawn." That it is hot 

 in those parts during April and May cannot be denied, 

 and the fierce midday hours sadly sap the strength of the 

 exotic exile; but, at this early dawn, newly-aroused 

 nature enjoys the coolest of all the twenty-four hours, and 

 a light dew has fallen, giving a fresh appearance to the 

 parched surroundings. 



