THE NAKBADA VALLEY 67 



ance to tlie invader near Jubbulpiir; but, the battle at 

 last going against tbem, their leader stabbed herself rather 

 than sufier the disgrace of defeat; and this fort of 

 Chaoragarh immediately afterwards fell into the hands of 

 the Moslem, together with property and treasure valued 

 in the chronicles at an altogether fabulous amount. The 

 summits of these old forts usually contain a little water 

 in the old tanks ; and being generally covered with thick 

 jungle are favourite resorts of the tiger and other animals 

 in the hot weather. 



From my camp at Chaolpani a single peak of the 

 Puchmurree hills was visible. It had not a very imposing 

 appearance, however, as I find it recorded as " like half 

 an egg sticking out of an immense egg-cup ! " A couple 

 of bears came close up to the camp at night and com- 

 menced to fight, making a fearful noise, it seemed to me, 

 as I awoke, inside the tent ropes. The horses were 

 tearing at their pickets, and all the camp in a hubbub. 

 I started out with a gun, but the people said they had 

 just passed through the camp, rolling over each other 

 and growling ; and it was so pitch dark that I could not 

 see any distance before me, and had to come back. The 

 next march was fourteen miles to Jhilpa, the last village 

 before the ascent of the hills begins. The view of. Puch- 

 murree was lost during this march from our being too 

 close under the intervening range of hiUs. On the way 

 I shot a young sambar stag ; and after arriving in camp 

 a messenger from the village I had left in the morning 

 came in breathless to say that a tiger had killed a bullock 

 in the morning within half a mile of my camp. At that 

 time of year, when the jungle is very green and thick, 

 and tigers always on the move, it was not worth while 

 to go back, even if I had had the time. 



This day's march was through a much more jungly 

 country than I had yet met. It could not be called 

 a forest; for the trees were all of the secondary growth, 

 which marks land repeatedly cleared and abandoned 

 again; and the cultivation, such as it was, was still 

 carried on with the regular bullock-plough, after the 

 manner of the plains. In many places there was a 



