THE TEAK EEGION. 213 



few years, give way under the combined assaults of malaria 

 and a fiery sun. 



Vast* tracts of the most sterile portion of this region are 

 absolutely without water during some months of the hot 

 season ; and in many others there is no more than perhaps a 

 single small pool, in some shaded hollow of the rocks, for many 

 miles on end. The only animal which can inhabit such wastes 

 as these is the nilgai, which can and does pass many days 

 without drinking; and scattered herds of them are accord- 

 ingly found even in the driest parts. The bison wanders over 

 the whole of the forest and hilly portion of the tract, wherever 

 the absence of man and cattle, and abundance of bamboo 

 cover and water, afford him the needful conditions. The deer 

 tribe comprises the Sambar (Rusa aristotelis) and the Axis or 

 Spotted Deer {Axis maculatus) in large numbers, and, more 

 rare, the Barking Deer (Cervulus aureus), besides the little 

 four-horned antelope already mentioned. The Hog Deer 

 (Axis porcinus) does not, I believe, occur so far to the 

 south-west as the trap country. The spotted deer is never 

 found except in the neighbourhood of the larger rivers. 

 Abundance of water and green shade appear to be first con- 

 ditions of its existence. A few barking deer are found scat- 

 tered all over the tract, though never very far from water. 



Sambar are rarely found in the very dry interior, but som e 

 times travel to rest during the day to a long distance from the 

 water hole or stream where they drink at night, On the level 

 table land they are not very numerous, preferring the slopes 

 and summits of the hills. But no animal changes its location 

 so much, according to the season of the year, abundance of 

 food, etc., as the sambar. Wherever the bison is found, the 

 sambar is certain to be as well ; but his range is not so con- 

 fined as the bison's, being much more tolerant of the propin- 



