THE TEAK EEGION. 241 



and knew every inch of the country. The one who brought 

 us the news rejoiced in the name of Jhingra Or " The Shrimp;" 

 and really, by some fortuitous accident, his long attenuated 

 arms and legs, and curiously shrivelled features, with a few 

 long feeler-like bristles in the place of a beard, gave him a 

 very strong resemblance to that innocent crustacean. The 

 name of the other, who had been left perched in a tree to 

 watch the beeves, cannot be handed down to fame, having 

 been lost in the secondary appellation of " The Skunk." I 

 must say the olfactory powers of the bison lost greatly in my 

 estimation when I found that they had remained quietly 

 grazing for half a day within a mile or so of this most odorous 

 of Turvees ! The Shrimp was very anxious that we should 

 proceed there and then to attack the bison, urging how un- 

 comfortable the Skunk would be if left clinging to the upper 

 branches of a tree all night, and patting his shrivelled stomach 

 to show how delighted they both would be to be at close 

 quarters with a bison steak. We pitied the Skunk, and 

 pointed out to the Shrimp a quarter of sdmbar venison hang- 

 ing up from which he might satisfy his own cravings ; but 

 we had no idea of starting off after bison six miles away in 

 that country at three o'clock in the afternoon. 



It wanted a good deal of arrangement, in fact, to hunt that 

 country ; and we never found out the proper way to do it till 

 just as we were leaving it. As it was we sent round a tent 

 and the needful supplies by a very circuitous road, down our 

 valley to the plain, along the foot of the hills for a good many 

 miles, and then up another valley that was said to run into 

 the heart of the bison country. The people had directions to 

 go as far up the valley as they could find water, and pitch 

 there. We were to go straight across next day, and, after 

 hunting up the bison, come down the head of the further 



