THE HIGHER NAR13ADA. 325 



banks of the river, where a network of ravines, covered with 

 clumps of bamboo, afforded them the plentiful shade and 

 abundance of water they delight in. In attendance on them 

 was the tiger, who revelled in the abundance of game then 

 congregated about the river. The herds of cattle and buffa- 

 loes that were grazing in the valley were seldom touched, 

 excepting in one place, where I found a family of tigers 

 wholly subsisting upon them ; but nearly every day we 

 stumbled on the remains of spotted deer, s^mbar, and nilgai, 

 which had fallen victims to the destroyer. The destroyer 

 himself, however, kept, with a good deal of success, out of 

 our way. I was too green a hand to hunt him then with 

 the silent perseverance which alone ensures success, and could 

 rarely resist a promising shot at other game on the distant 

 chance of finding a tiger. Nor do I think that Mr. Bamanjee 

 much desired to have very many interviews with his jungle 

 majesty. Spotted deer were in immense numbers, and the 

 bucks were everywhere bellowing along the banks, and in the 

 bamboo-covered ravines that radiate from the river. It was 

 very easy to shoot the poor brutes at that time, the best plan 

 being to embark in a canoe dug out of a single log, and 

 paddle slowly down the reaches a little way from the bank, 

 between daybreak and ten or eleven o'clock. The air of 

 repose worn by the whole scene at that time is scarcely 

 broken by the movement of animal life. The lazy plunge of 

 a crocodile, the eddying rise of a great fish, the hover of a 

 gem-like kingfisher, the easy flight of the dark square-winged 

 buzzard, all add to, rather than diminish, the sense of quietness 

 in the scene. Immense numbers of peafowl live on the banks. 

 This is the season of their loves, and almost every bare knoll 

 may be seen covered with a flock of them, the hens sitting 

 demurely in the centre, while the cocks ruffle out their magni- 



