138 BISON. 



leeches, but we found a sheet of rock and squatted there, 

 drenched with rain (which had been falling all day) with- 

 out food or liquor or even fire, as the matches were all 

 wet, so that even a smoke was not procurable. The 

 remorseless rain continued throughout the night ; the rock 

 was too small to allow us to stretch our legs, so we huddled 

 together in a state of misery. In the middle of the 

 night we heard a pack of wild dogs within a few hundred 

 yards, and the cooly wanted to bolt to climb a tree, but I 

 would not let him do so, explaining that as he had got 

 us into trouble he would have to see us through it. 



All shikaries declare that these jungle dogs, when in 

 packs, are worse than wolves, and will attack anything, 

 and I remember one morning in the Koobair district, 

 where a pack had killed two of our buffaloes, being faced 

 by them on approaching the carcases ; but a shot or two 

 dispersed them, which would probably not have been the 

 case if they were not already satiated with flesh. We 

 were lucky enough to escape the attentions of these Anna- 

 mullay marauders, and at daybreak started again on our 

 travels, and, after walking some miles, found a smouldering 

 forest tree, which had probably been struck by lightning 

 months before we were thus enabled to warm ourselves, 

 and dry our saturated clothes. For a long time we could 

 not discover our bearings, the sun being still obscured by 

 rain and a fog ; but at last a fleeting gleam shone forth, 

 and, directed by it, we struck a line which, after two hours' 

 walking, took us to the edge of a glade, where the cooly 

 declared we were again wrong, but I crossed it, and, 

 discovering a track, followed it to Shungum, thence we 

 followed the road to Toonacudavoo, arriving after a twenty- 

 five hours' absence in a state of complete demoralisation, to 

 say nothing of starvation. During the afternoon all the 



