ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 323 



steal from his bed, and quietly unscrewing one of the trigger- 

 guards, release a rifle, which he hid under his mattress. 

 Murray, on waking, looked as usual at his guns, and, 

 finding one missing, raised a great outcry. We kept up 

 the joke till breakfast-time, when his weapon was restored 

 to him. 



A Bheel now came in, having left some of his friends on 

 sentry over two bears in the hills about five miles to the 

 southward. The heat was very great, but on being told that 

 by making a circuit we could reach the place by a footpath, 

 we mounted our horses and went off, having ordered the camp 

 to be moved westward to the Hutnee river. Our guide led us 

 a dance of at least ten miles through a very strong country, 

 and our men suffered greatly from the want of water. The 

 bears lay on a hill-side covered with long dry grass and 

 huge stones, and we had some difficulty in fixing on positions 

 for the guns. The beat, however, was successful, and both 

 bears were slain. They were fine large beasts, and as we had 

 no means of transport, we prepared to skin them on the spot. 

 In the bottom of the ravine was a single green tree, and, 

 anxious to avail ourselves of its shade, we carried the bears 

 to the edge of the hill, and sent them rolling down into the 

 nullah. For our own consumption we carried water in 

 leathern bottles, but our men were obliged to go off to a 

 water-hole two miles distant, where they slaked their thirst, 

 while we busied ourselves in skinning the bears. It was late 

 before we reached our camp, where we were comforted by a 

 bath and change of raiment. 



Two miles higher up the Hutnee is joined by the Sankree 

 Tokree ravine, and here one of our buffaloes was killed in 

 the night by a tiger. The tracks led to a mass of rough 

 grass and bushes in the bed of the Hutnee, and we beat 



