230 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



Just as we arrived some dogs belonging to the Bheels, which 

 had been ranging in the jungle, passed across the dry bed of 

 the lake in full cry after a doe sambar they had roused. Of 

 course we flew to our rifles, but were just in time to miss her 

 handsomely as she dashed into the thick jungle, followed for a 

 little way by the dogs, who soon came limping back however. 

 Next morning we took different directions to explore and 

 hunt, each with a few Bheel attendants. My way lay along 

 the backbone of the range beyond Bingara. After walking 

 some miles, examining carefully with glass and eye the 

 declivities on either side, my Bheel henchman, a sharp lad 

 called Chand, or " the Moon," fixed a longer look than usual 

 on the slope of a distant hill-side, and after a while motioned 

 me up to him, and directed my binocular to the centre of a 

 scrubby patch of teak forest. Presently I caught the glint of 

 the sun on something moving, and made out a noble sambar 

 stag standing under the trees motionless, except that he slowly 

 turned his antlered head from side to side, sweeping with keen 

 vision the whole semicircle within his ken. He was not more 

 than a mile off in a direct line ; but to get to the spot it 

 would be necessary to go several miles round the head of a 

 long ravine. As he was almost certain to lie down where he 

 was we carefully marked the spot, and slipping back over 

 the edge of the saddle started off at a brisk walk to circum- 

 vent him. The sun was well up now, and it is very hot in 

 March even at that early hour ; so that by the time we had got 

 round into the ravine below our temperature was considerably 

 higher than when we started. Now commenced an excru- 

 ciating advance on tiptoe, with bended backs, over a stratum 

 of fallen teak leaves of the " tin box " description, to step on 

 a single one of which would be fatal to the stalk. As the only 

 alternative foot ground was on rounded trap boulders, given 



