242 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



valley to the camp ; and dearly we paid for giving such 

 indefinite instructions before we were done. 



Next morning we started under the guidance of the Shrimp, 

 and mounted on two redoubtable Deccanee ponies, who we 

 had found could go in these hills wherever we could and 

 saved us a good lot of hard work in the sun. The way lay 

 up a long burnt valley, in which tracks of s&mbar, and the 

 pug of a large tiger who had been following them during the 

 night, were plainly visible. It was too late, however, to see 

 any game out in such open country ; and we wound up the 

 rugged pathway leading to the top of the hill without having 

 come across a single animal. 



We now came on to a tolerably level plateau, and rode on 

 for some miles, keeping a sharp look-out for animals. The 

 plateau was beginning to shelve down towards a ravine 

 filled with clumps of bamboo, beyond which rose another flat- 

 topped ridge, when my eye rested on a spot of denser shadow 

 in the thin salei jungle that topped the further ridge. Pull- 

 ing up to use the binocular, I discovered the whole herd 

 of bison grazing quietly in the cover. We were a 

 couple of miles away at least, and silently withdrew into a 

 hollow that would lead us down into the ravine. T. and I 

 now advanced, with the Shrimp, leaving our ponies and 

 the other Bheels to follow us on hearing a shot. We had a long 

 hot stalk, and on reaching the plateau found that the herd 

 had disappeared. The place was evidently a regular resort 

 of the wild cattle, the long grass being twisted about into 

 wisps by their feet, and all the bushes broken and grazed away. 

 We stalked over the plateau with cocked rifles, the Shrimp 

 swarming trees to look out ahead ; but no beeves did we see, 

 except a cow and her little calf making off over a distant rising 

 ground at a slow trot, the sunlight glancing every now and 



