ii 4 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



ing, and I have never known him fail when once 

 on the track of elephant, buffalo or bison. 



I was camped near the Bisra station, Bengal- 

 Nagpur Railway, some years ago, when Charun 

 turned up one morning with his arms spread wide 

 over his head a gesture which I understood to 

 mean buffalo ; then a single finger upheld, meaning 

 a solitary buffalo ; out-stretched fingers over his 

 foot to indicate the large size of the spoor ; adding 

 to the south of the railway line, and that we would 

 come up to it by nine o'clock a.m., by a wave of 

 his hand to the south and pointing to where the 

 sun would be, which conveyed his meaning to me 

 as plainly as words could do. During the rains I 

 find an elephant a very useful animal in a shikar 

 expedition. The ground is sloppy ; there are 

 numerous rivulets to cross, and after a fatiguing 

 day the return to camp is better done on a pad 

 than on foot. Again, the trophies of the day's 

 sport can easily be brought home if your pad- 

 elephant is kept a few hundred yards behind the 

 trackers. Bheestie, the baggage elephant, was soon 

 in full swing after Charun, who stalked on before, 

 accompanied by two other of his confreres, while 

 I was safely perched up on the pad behind the 

 mahout. I had only a double 12 smooth-bore my 

 heavy elephant rifle being away at Calcutta under- 

 going repair and Charun had his cap-gun. After 

 crossing some low hills to the south of the line, we 

 turned up a valley to the west, keeping along the 

 course of a nullah (dry river-bed) for a mile, when 

 Charun signalled to us to dismount and pointed 





