280 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



lection of his former injuries which made him so noisy when 

 roused on the previous day. 



Owing to the time that had elapsed before the skin was 

 removed I feared that it would go wrong, and I steeped it in 

 a strong solution of alum. Notwithstanding this I was obliged 

 to throw it away. Had I stretched and dried it in the usual 

 manner it might perhaps have been saved. On the following 

 day we moved -our camp towards Sirdarpore. 



We halted at the foot of the hills, in a very dreary and 

 horrible country, to which we had been led by the hope of 

 finding game. Colonel Baigrie had visited this spot in the year 

 1860, and was here charged and severely bitten in the arm by 

 a wounded tigress. He owed his life to the nerve and good 

 shooting of his companion. On hearing of his mishap, Dr. 

 Gane, the medical officer at Sirdarpore, at once went out and 

 had him brought into the cantonment, where he was carefully 

 and successfully nursed. 



At this camp shade and water were alike scarce. In the 

 jungle, close to our tents, was a hideous idol, daubed with 

 vermilion and smeared with oil. It was apparently an object 

 of great veneration, and had been so plentifully anointed with 

 oil by worshippers that the ground around it was completely 

 saturated. Beside it a well had been dug out and faced with 

 stone, but the walls had fallen in, and the oil, oozing through 

 the soil, lay in the bottom in a filthy pool. As we could hear 

 of no game, and were not bent on " striking ile," we beat a 

 hasty retreat from this inhospitable region. We ascended the 

 Ghaut by a long and rugged track winding through the hills. 

 The march was a severe one both for servants and cattle. 



I may here remark on the excellence of good Indian ser- 

 vants. Faiz Mahomed came to me as head servant in the 

 autumn of 1858, as I was about to start with the field force. 



