328 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL IXDIA. 



About twenty-five miles above Jubbulpur is a curious place 

 called the " Monkeys' Leap." A small tributary of the Narbada, 

 called the Baghora (or " Tiger Kiver"), here comes down from 

 the southern hills, and, after approaching the Narbada within 

 about a hundred yards, sheers off again, and runs sonle miles 

 before it finally joins it. Deep water fills both the channels 

 opposite the narrow neck, and the strip of cover between the 

 rivers is a favourite resort for all sorts of game in the hot sea- 

 son. I was invited by a neighbouring thakur, a Kajput, to 

 join a drive for game he was arranging at this place, in which 

 he hoped to secure a famous tiger that had long defied every 

 effort to kill him. Long will "Whitehead" of the Gaira 

 Baira be remembered on the banks of the Narbada. He fur- 

 nished sport to a whole generation of the sportsmen of Jub- 

 bulpur, and, so far as I know, never was killed. He disap- 

 peared in the course of time. Several hundred beaters were 

 assembled to beat the leg-of-mutton shaped tract, of which the 

 narrow " Monkeys' Leap" between the two rivers formed the 

 shank. A large old stump of a banyan tree stood right in the 

 centre of the neck, hollowed like a cup at the top by the 

 weather, and filled a few inches deep with drift sand: A 

 better post for the gunner could not be, and here the thakur 

 and I took our places. It was a long drive, and it was not 

 for an hour or more that the game began to appear, and 

 groups of spotted deer gradually collected on all the knolls 

 within sight on the inward side. They grew and grew in 

 numbers, gazing back at the beaters and forward at the tree, 

 where they had often run the gauntlet before. They were 

 very unwilling to come on, but the drive was strong and not 

 to be eluded. I watched for the tiger till many of the deer had 

 gone past ; at first a straggling doe with her fawn, then small 

 groups, and finally a great hustling mass of dappled hides and 



