112 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



the branch across the pail, leaving the thick or heavy end out- 

 wards, lie places one foot upon this to keep it from slipping off 

 until he has placed the next bough across it upon the opposite 

 side, arranged in a similar manner. In this way he continues to 

 load the elephant, each time holding down with his foot a separate 

 bough, until he has secured it by the weight of another, placed in 

 the same position opposite. This plan enables him to build up a 

 load like a small haystack, which is then secured by ropes, and 

 almost hides the animal that carries it. My mighty beast was 

 condemned to this useful but degrading employment, instead of 

 being honoured by a place in the line of shikari's elephants, and 

 we started into the valleys among the Garo Hills, led by a native 

 who declared that he would introduce us to rhinoceros and 

 buffaloes. 



We started at 6 A.M., and marched about 14 miles, extending 

 into line whenever we entered a broad valley of high grass, and 

 slowly thrashing our way through it. In many of the swampy 

 flats among the hills the reedy grass was quite 14 or 15 feet in 

 height and as thick as the forefinger ; so dense was this herbage, 

 that when the elephants were in line you could only see the animals 

 upon the immediate left and right, the others being completely 

 hidden. It struck me that this system of beating was rather 

 absurd, as there were no stops in the front, neither scouts on the 

 flanks, therefore any animals that might be disturbed by the 

 advance in line had every chance of escape without being observed. 

 The grass was a vivid green, and occasionally a rush in front 

 showed that some large animal had moved, but nothing could be 

 seen. This was a wrong system of beating. I was second in the 

 line of six guns, the Rajah Suchi Khan upon my left ; we pre- 

 sently skirted the toot of a range of low forest-covered hills, and 

 after a rush in the high reeds I observed a couple of sambur deer, 

 including a stag, trotting up the hill through the open lorest, all 

 of which had been recently cleared by fire. A right and left 

 shot from Suchi Khan produced no effect, but the incident proved 

 that the system of beating was entirely wrong, as the game when 

 disturbed could evidently steal away and escape unseen. Our 

 right flank had now halted at about 400 yards' distance as a pivot, 

 upon which the line was supposed to turn in order to beat out 

 the swamp that was surrounded upon all sides by hills and 

 jungles. Suddenly a shot was heard about 200 yards distant, then 

 another, succeeded by several in slow .succession in the same 

 locality. I felt sure this was a buffalo, and, as the line halted 

 for a few minutes, I counted every shot fired until I reached the 



