146 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



Now we are steadily toiling up the steep thousand feet 

 of the Tor Ghat. When we sit down for a breather half way 

 up, there is borne to the ear, through six miles of clear dry 

 atmosphere, a faint and distant "Tupp!" "Tupp!" of rifle 

 practice going on at the range far out on the plains below. 



The scenery of these hills is well worth a stiff climb. 

 I suppose it is the distance-annihilating atmosphere of India 

 that renders them so comparatively insignificant when view- 

 ed from afar, since during the rainy season their summits, 

 standing out above cloudland, assume their truer propor- 

 tions. The visitor to these regions will be surprised to 

 note the extent and depth of the chasm- like ravines, and 

 the bulk and height of the elevated plateaux that lift their 

 shoulders in all directions. Some of the higher peaks are 

 composed of sharp and splintered basaltic rock, inhabited 

 by troops of langur monkeys. At this season of early 

 December the long grass is still green and luxuriant, its 

 surface matted with the peculiar black bunches of ripening 

 seeds which constitute the highly unpopular " spear- 

 grass," and the sportsman, if he be wise, will wear breeches 

 made of good, new, stiff khaki drill. Later on, the 

 spear-grass seed dries, and the tiny barbs, each of them a 

 seed, drop to the earth. If the dry grass be parted after 

 this has taken place, the surface of the ground under it 

 will be found thickly covered with a soft and furry brown 

 fluff composed of these seeds a wonderful provision of 

 Nature against their total destruction by fire. When the 

 big grass fires of the hot weather sweep over these tindery 

 expanses, the flame rushes by, merely scorching the upper 

 layers of this fluff ; and with the first heavy rain of the 

 monsoon these solitudes are quickly reclothed in green. 



The prevailing tree here is the salat, the light graceful 

 foliage of which is still unshed, and we may detect, here andj 



