334 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



path was jungle-grass ten feet in height. The Naikras in tin's 

 country were very troublesome in 185*7-58 ; and the closeness 

 of the jungle having greatly impeded the operations of the 

 troops sent against them, several clearings of 100 yards in 

 breadth and many miles in length have been made along 

 the principal tracks. As the district is now entirely under 

 British rule, it is to be hoped that these and other bene- 

 ficial measures may tend to civilise these wild men. 



On this march we shot many green wood -pigeons and 

 jungle -fowl. Both, when cooked, were excellent, and the 

 feathers of the latter have since been in great request by 

 ladies for their hats, and by salmon-fishers for their flies. 

 We halted two days at the Euttun Mall Hill, spending our 

 time in its wooded glades in quest of sambur. I had 

 wounded and lost a fat hind, and was posted in a bit of 

 very close covert by the Bheels of the hill, who had assembled 

 under their chief to do us honour by driving the jungle. 

 A stag passed at full speed about fifty yards to my right, 

 crashing, as he went, through the thick underwood. I fired, 

 but without much hope ; and, at the end of the beat, was 

 preparing to go on, when it struck me that I might as well 

 examine the ground over which the stag had passed. On a 

 close inspection of the dead leaves, I found a few hairs which 

 had been cut by my bullet, farther on a speck of blood, then 

 larger quantities, and a hundred yards farther the stag him- 

 self, lying shot nearly through the heart. He was skinned 

 and cut up on the spot, after which a bottle of Moselle was 

 produced from the depths of the capacious basket in which 

 Bonnor invariably carried his refreshments when shooting. 

 On descending the hill that officer detailed the events of the 

 day in some spirited verses of heroic metre, but I regret, for 

 the sake of my readers, that I cannot here furnish them with 



