6 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



numerous footprints of wild animals all round it, 

 was well used, and he had urged the advisability 

 of my going and sitting up over it during the 

 night on the chance of getting a shot. Bears' 

 footprints, he said, were particularly numerous, 

 and he almost guaranteed my seeing and getting 

 a shot at c Ursus labiatus.' This was an extra 

 inducement to me, and he, during the day, having 

 made all arrangements, we started about nine p.m., 

 and ere long reached the dry bed of the river ; fol- 

 lowing this a short distance we soon reached the 

 scene of action. The pool of water was a com- 

 paratively small one, and lay at the foot of a bank 

 of reddish clay some ten feet high. On the top 

 of this bank, and overlooking the pool, Lutchman 

 had constructed a circular screen of branches 

 (what would now be called a ' zareeba'), and had 

 cut and laid a quantity of green grass on which a 

 couple of ' cumblies,' or native blankets, being 

 laid, we soon were comfortably ensconced and 

 ready for any animal that might visit the water. 



Soon the moon rose slowly over the dense, dark 

 shadows of the primaeval forest, and poured down 

 a flood of chastened silver radiance on the scene 

 around, lighting up the arches formed by the 

 graceful, feathery bamboos,* illuminating the bed 

 of the river, and making the minute, quartz-like 



*Bambusa Arundinacea. 



