ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 23 



We were detained a day or two in procuring pack bullocks 

 to carry our baggage to Belgaum, and in the meantime had 

 leisure to examine the new country and its inhabitants. At 

 the travellers' bungalow we met an officer of the Belgaum 

 garrison a very sharp fellow. I rode with him one evening, 

 and having made a considerable detour, we found ourselves 

 at dusk close to the house, but separated from it by a creek 

 thirty yards wide, which we had crossed further up. I was 

 not aware of the depth, but my companion told me to go on, 

 and assured me that it was " all right." In another moment 

 the water was over my saddle. Finding myself in for it, I held 

 on, and, half swimming my horse, reached the opposite bank. 

 Looking back, I saw my friend on the other side. "Ah!" 

 cried he, " the water is deeper than I thought ; " with which 

 remark he rode off by the way we had come, while I returned 

 alone to the bungalow, a wetter arid a wiser man. 



The march to Belgaum occupied five days. Not knowing 

 the customs of the country, we generally rose at daylight, 

 superintended the loading of the bullocks, and then marched 

 with them till about 10 A.M., by which time we had got over 

 some eight miles. If we came to a suitable stream, we un- 

 loaded, had a bathe in the river, and breakfasted, moving on 

 again to the next staging bungalow in the afternoon. We 

 were of course " griffins," and our mode of procedure was that 

 of griffins ; but what cared we? We enjoyed ourselves 

 thoroughly, and pursued and shot doves for the pot with a zeal 

 and energy worthy of a better cause. 



On the second day we reached the foot of the Earn Ghaut, 

 a steep pass in the mountains, leading up from the Concan 

 to the table-land of the Deccan. I believe that, had we 

 known how to set about it, we might have got bison and 

 sambur here ; but ignorance was bliss, and when I shot a 



