202 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



weather mane remaining, and of a peculiar and rare rich 

 chestnut colour. His horns were very stout and hand- 

 some, though about four inches shorter than those of the 

 Bori stag. The colour of the sambar of these open light 

 jungles is generally decidedly lighter than that of those 

 which inhabit the more shady forests further east. Some- 

 times a very black stag will be found, however, even here ; 

 and the colour of all varies a good deal at different times 

 of the year. 



The next day we again went out long before daybreak. 

 I was beckoned up a very steep hill by the Bheels on the 

 top ; and when I got there some time after the sun was up, 

 and a good deal fatigued by the climb, I found it was only 

 to tell me that they had seen two stags go up the opposite 

 hill slope, between which and our hill there lay a vaUey 

 as deep as that from which I had come up. They had 

 never been at this scouting work before, or they had well 

 deserved a thrashing for their pains. There was nothing 

 for it but to descend to the valley again, which was almost 

 severer work than coming up. The slipperiness of these 

 trap hiUs when every particle of grass on them has been 

 burnt into fine charcoal is dreadful. I never found the 

 deer that had been seen, and soon got involved in a trouble- 

 some series of cross ravines, so that by about nine o'clock 

 I was pretty hot and wearied in the April sun. I had 

 almost given up hunting, and had turned for home, when 

 something caught my eye in the bottom of a shght hollow 

 in the hill. It looked exactly like one of the bvinches of 

 twigs that grow out of old teak stumps on these hiUs, 

 with one or two dried leaves attached to them ; and yet 

 I fancied I had seen it move. I looked at it intently for 

 at least a minute, trying to make out if it was a bunch of 

 teak twigs or a sambar's head and horns. It never moved 

 the whole of this time ; and, as the Bheels who were with 

 me said it was only a stump, I turned to pass on. The 

 ghnt of my rifle barrel must then have caught in the sun, 

 for a noble stag started up from his lair, and without pausing 

 for a second wheeled round and clattered away. My 

 hasty shot missed him clean, and he then plunged into a 

 ravine that lay at the back of the hollow he had been in. 



