210 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



I returned with the 7 1st detachment, and one of the 

 officers being anxious to see some wild beast, I took him out 

 in the jungles on the south side of the Nerbudda. I hardly 

 expected anything, as we had but few people with us, and 

 had not had time to send men out in the early morning. But, 

 from the rocks on the edge of some table-land, thinly covered 

 with thorny bushes, we started a panther, and, on examining 

 the spot, found two cubs, which we carried off and made over 

 to the soldiers on joining the camp. 



As we approached Maunpore, I sent Himta ahead, telling 

 him to bring all the local talent into action, and to endeavour 

 to mark down something on the morning that we were to 

 arrive. Accordingly, he presented himself as directed, and 

 reported a panther in the bed of the Ajnaar river. This river, 

 like many other streams rising on the southern boundary of 

 Malwa, after winding for a short distance through the higher 

 jungle, leaps down a precipice of about thirty feet into a 

 chasm, walled on either side by perpendicular rocks of large- 

 grained basalt, intersected in parts by veins of quartz. It was 

 to a cave in the north bank of this river that I retired when 

 the mutiny broke out at Mhow, and it was not far from this 

 cave that the panther had this morning been seen to enter 

 a mass of rocks in the centre of the river immediately below 

 the waterfall. The cave was formed by an overhanging rock, 

 from which water dripped incessantly. The water, being 

 strongly charged with lime, caused the surface of the rock to 

 be covered with incrustations in a stalactite form, wondrous 

 to behold. Immediately in front of the cave rose a mass 

 of heavy foliage twined with creepers, generally tenanted by 

 green pigeons. The only drawback to the place was a very 

 dirty recluse, who had taken up his quarters here, spending 

 his time either in begging in the neighbourhood, or sleeping 



