288 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



find any, we will send in the dogs to make sure ; 

 but until this has been done I should advise you to 

 confine your ablutions to ' chatties ' (earthen pots) 

 of water on shore." So, sending Chineah for the 

 dogs, we clambered down the rock, and strolled by 

 the sand along the edge of the water. 



Here we saw the fresh pugs of two tigers, a 

 cheetah, and several bears, besides the old spoors 

 of elephant and bison, with innumerable slots of 

 different kinds of deer, including the " Sambur " or 

 black Rusa deer, commonly called the Indian elk, 

 (Rusa Aristoteles ;) the " Chetel " or spotted deer, 

 {Gervus Axis ;) and the "Muntjac" or jungle- sheep, 

 {Gervus Muntjac;) besides the marks of a sounder of 

 hog, a pack of jackals, peacocks, and jungle-fowl ; 

 but I could not distinguish any trail of alligators. 



It was evident that this was the place where most 

 of the wild animals of the surrounding jungle came 

 to slake their thirst, so I determined to build a 

 moat, or place of ambuscade, on a huge isolated 

 boulder of black rock, which commanded all ap- 

 proach to the water within easy range of our rifles. 

 As the sides were scarped we had some trouble to 

 get to the top, which was covered with bush, thorny 

 brambles, and creepers, but with the aid of our axes 

 we soon cleared a space sufficiently large for three 

 or four of us to lie down at full length, on which 

 we constructed a kind of hut, by stretching a 

 "combley" blanket over poles, and covering the 

 outside with creepers, so as to make it resemble 



