A LUCKY KILL. l6l 



through it on foot anywhere. Huge trees rose out of 

 the jungle and towered above the underwood. The 

 luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation is almost incon- 

 ceivable to a European who has never seen it. Nature 

 seems to revel in illimitable power of production. The 

 great trees are clothed with parasites, which run all over 

 them and hang in festoons from every bough. It is need- 

 less to say that in a jungle of this kind it would be quite 

 impossible to use a horse. Indeed, one is fortunate if 

 one can see game at fifty yards distance in any given 

 direction. 



There was plenty of life. Huge bats the size of sea- 

 gulls flopped about over the boats. Troops of monkeys 

 chattered and howled amongst the branches, or jumped 

 from bough to bough with a loud swishing sound. Borneo 

 is par excellence the country of monkeys. Every now and 

 then a wild pig would stare at the boat with astonishment, 

 and then giving a grunt would trot away. Here and 

 there on the banks were small patches devoid of timber, 

 and clothed with grass or bracken. I saw a stag or two 

 as we paddled along, but not wishing to disturb elephants 

 did not fire. Sometimes we stopped and landed to seek 

 for spoor ; but, though there were plenty of old elephant 

 tracks, there was nothing more recent than tracks made 

 at the time of the last full moon. 



In this country, all sorts of game get on the move 

 about two days before the full moon until two days 

 after, and the same thing happens at the time of the 

 young moon. At these periods the game emerge from 

 their haunts in the jungle and travel to the rivers and to 

 distant feeding grounds. It is, therefore, advisable for 

 the sportsman to select these times of the moon for his 



hunting expeditions. 



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