ADVENTUKES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 341 



raft very noiselessly with a long bamboo. On a given signal 

 all put down their sticks, and with much dexterity cast their 

 nets simultaneously into the space between the rafts. By 

 this means large numbers of fish were nightly captured. The 

 smaller ones were kept alive during the next day in netted 

 enclosures sunk under water, while large fish were attached to 

 the bank by a long cord fastened round the tail. At sunset 

 all were drawn out and killed. They were then packed on 

 ponies, and sent off thirty or forty miles during the night to 

 the cantonment at Neemuch. 



A number of murrel were shot by our own men, who fired 

 on them from trees and overhanging banks as they basked on 

 the surface. While fishing for mahseer with paste we were 

 much annoyed by river turtle of great size, which came readily 

 to the baits, and generally broke our tackle. I succeeded in 

 bringing one of these to the top, and as he rose, Futtah, who 

 was seated on a rock above me, put a bullet through him from 

 my rifle. The pool was deeply tinged with blood, but the 

 beast sank, and, as usual, my tackle suffered. 



We frequently found bustard in the plains, and I shot 

 several fine specimens. On one occasion I counted nineteen 

 together, but they were very wary, and we got none of them. 

 I generally found that they could be approached most easily 

 under cover of a horse or camel, and sometimes, when riding, 

 they would allow us to come within a few yards before taking 

 flight. As we moved north we came on a fine antelope 

 country, and many good bucks were brought in. Large bags 

 of geese, ducks, and snipe, were also made. One morning, 

 when encamped near the Bunass river, our men marked down 

 a tiger, and we went out after him. We had no shooting 

 howdah, and after the little affair with the alligator, we had 

 no confidence in our elephant, so trusted to finding trees from 



