260 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



I therefore arranged with B , who was suffer- 

 ing from dysentery, and hardly fit for hard work, 

 that I should start with Chineah, Googooloo, and 

 two others of the gang, ear^y on the morrow, to 

 reconnoiti^e, leaving him, with the rest of the people, 

 to get everything ship-shape in the huts. Accord- 

 ingly, at daybreak we started, under the guidance 

 of the wood-cutter, and a couple of Carders carrying 

 axes, provisions for three days, and large comblies, or 

 goats'-hair blankets, to serve as coverings. 



We soon arrived at Cawderpuddy, where we found 

 about twenty men engaged in cutting timber. Here 

 we learned that a herd of fifteen elephants, amongst 

 which were two tuskers, had been seen quietly 

 browsing in a valley some three miles off*, the morn- 

 ing previous, by some women, who had gone there 

 to pick " barjee," a kind of wild spinach, and for 

 the inducement of some tobacco one of the men 

 offered to show us the spot. After a couple of 

 hours' fag through thickish jungle, we came upon 

 an open glade, at one end of which was a swamp, 

 where a sounder of hog were wallowing, and here 

 we found the trail of a large herd, not many hours 

 old, which we followed until the sun began to get 

 low in the horizon, when, arriving at a watercourse, I 

 eave the order to halt and prepare the supper, whilst 

 I looked out for a suitable place to pass the night. 



Being an old forest-ranger, and used to camping 

 out, I was not very particular, my great object being 

 to secure a flank defence, so as to avoid the possi- 



