THE TEAK EEGION. 237 



long before they arrived. He was one of the finest harts I 

 ever saw, in beautiful condition, with much of the cold- 

 weather mane remaining, and of a peculiar and rare rich 

 chestnut colour. His horns were very stout and hand- 

 some, though about four inches shorter than those of the 

 Bori stag. The colour of the smbar of these open light 

 jungles is generally decidedly lighter than that of those 

 which inhabit the more shady forests further east. Some- 

 times a very black stag will be found, however, even here ; 

 and the colour of all varies a good deal at different times of 

 the year. I did not get another shot that morning, and T. 

 returned with an empty bag, having lost the stag he followed 

 in the long grass on the tops of the hills. 



The next day we again went out long before daybreak. I 

 was beckoned up a very steep hill by the Bheels on the top ; 

 and when I got there some time after the sun was up, and a 

 good deal fatigued by the climb, I found it was only to tell 

 me that they had seen two stags go up the opposite hill slope, 

 between which and our hill there lay a valley as deep as that 

 from which I had come up. They had never been at this 

 scouting work before, or they had well deserved a thrashing 

 for their pains. There was nothing for it but to descend to 

 the valley again, which was almost severer work than coming 

 up. The slipperiness of these trap hills when every particle 

 of grass on them has been burnt into fine charcoal is dreadful. 

 I never found the deer that had been seen, and soon got in- 

 volved in a troublesome series of cross ravines, so that by 

 about nine o'clock I was pretty hot and wearied in the April 

 sun. I had almost given up hunting, and had turned for 

 home, when something caught my eye in the bottom of a 

 slight hollow in the hill. It looked exactly like one of the 

 bunches of twigs that grow out of old teak stumps on these 



