THE TEAK KEGION. 225 



the deer before they have lain down. This method of scouting 

 also succeeds well with bison in the thin jungles where they 

 are sometimes found ; and I do not know any place where the 

 sport of stalking the bison and sambar in this fashion can be 

 followed with better chance of success than in the jungles on 

 either side of the upper Tapti valley. Indeed, the very best 

 of this sport can be had within an easy morning's ride of the 

 large city of Burhanpur, in the Nimar district, situated on the 

 Tapti, a few miles below the point where the narrow rugged 

 valley opens out into a wide basin of fertile and highly culti- 

 vated black soil. Here the Tapti is joined by the Mona, a 

 beautiful stream which flows clear and sparkling out of a 

 branch of the Satptira range called the Hatti hills. It is one 

 of the most singular parts of the great basaltic formation, and 

 forms the extreme westerly termination of the highland region 

 I am describing. Last year I traversed the whole of this 

 range from end to end, on boundary settlement business, 

 in company with a friend Captain T., of the Survey ; and 

 though, being on duty, our first object was of course the 

 public service, we found leisure for a little of our favourite 

 sport at different times. 



In the end of February we rode out from Burhanpur to 

 our camp, which was pitched at the last village in the open 

 plain. Next morning a small tent was sent up to a little fort 

 called Gharri, that crowns the northern face of the Hatti range, 

 and we ourselves took different lines through the hills on 

 foot to the same place. The inhabitants of these hills are all 

 Bheels, a good deal spoilt by " civilization," being mostly lazy 

 and thriftless, and confirmed opium eaters. They are the 

 descendants of ancestors who were nominally converted to 

 Mahomedanism, in the days when a strong Moslem power was 

 established at Burhanpur, but now retain scarcely anything of 



