THE ''HUNNING" season. 201 



further explain to liim that I once hunted indefatigably after 

 hangul from about the middle of August until towards the 

 end of September, over what was considered to be excellent 

 ground, but, owing to the denseness of the undergrowth, 

 without so much as seeing a single stag, even in velvet; 

 and the constant rain and mists at that season were very 

 detrimental to this kind of work. A circumstance over 

 which I had no control — namely, the termination of my 

 leave — obliged me then to quit Cashmere, just as the deer 

 were beginning to rut, which is the only time that there is 

 any certainty of finding stags, except when the winter snow 

 drives them down almost into the valleys. During the 

 rutting season they betray their whereabouts in the dense 

 tracts of forest they affect, by their intermittent roarings ^ 

 — strangely wild sounds which, when once heard echoing 

 through those grand pine-woods, continue to haunt the ear 

 for many a day. At that season, too, the gallantry of the 

 stags in escorting the hinds from out the thick forest on to 

 the open green slopes and glades, where they are wont to 

 feed morning and evening, and their inclination, at that 

 season, for a roll in their soiling-pools, which are well 

 known to the hunter, often cost them their lives. More- 

 over, the weather and climate there in October and Novem- 

 ber are simply perfect. 



At the capital I found old Eamzan awaiting my arrival. 

 He looked more snuffy than ever, but was otherwise little 

 altered by an increase of several years to his already ad- 

 vanced age. He proposed that we should try the forests on 

 the hills above Nouboog Nye — which beautiful valley I have 

 attempted to describe in a preceding chapter — although the 

 general idea at that time was, that stags had become very 

 scarce there. This, however, turned out to be one of the 

 popular fallacies respecting the great decrease of all Hima- 



^ Whistling is the term applied to mucli the same noise made by the 

 wapiti stag of North ' America ; but something between a prolonged roar 

 and a whistle perhaps gives a better idea of the sound. 



