314 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



themselves in the grass much, after the mamier of the 

 sambar. I have never heard of their visiting cultivated 

 tracts, like the latter ; nor can I learn that their apparent 

 adherence to the sal forest is due to their employing any 

 part of that tree as food. 



In the middle of the day the red deer (so they are called 

 by natives, and often by Europeans) may be shot by 

 beating the grass with elephants in the manner before 

 described. During the height of the cold weather many 

 parts of this tract can hardly be traversed except on an 

 elephant; and in such places shooting would otherwise 

 be impossible, owing to the height and thickness of the 

 grass jungle. In the course of a day's beating of this 

 sort in the Mandla district a very great variety of game 

 may easily be met with. On one occasion, when spending 

 Christmas with two friends in the lovely Matiari valley, 

 a day's march east of the station of Mandla, we secured, 

 I think, a specimen of nearly every kind of game to be 

 found in the country, excepting the bison and the panther. 

 On the 26th we marched from a place called Bartola to 

 Gobri, both on the Matiari — a clear sparkhng stream that 

 here runs through a valley, filled with long grass cover, 

 and bounded on either side by chains of low hiUs, flat 

 on the tops, and clothed with low tree jungle and bamboos 

 on their sides. We took separate lines, E. going by the 

 pathway, D. along the tops of the hills on one side, while 

 I beat along the river below on an elephant. I had not 

 gone far before I put up a large herd of sambar in long 

 grass, and, firing right and left, dropped one small stag, 

 and heavily wounded a very large|fellow with splendid 

 antlers and as black as a bi:^alo. I got ofi, and tracked 

 the wounded animal for about three miles by his blood 

 through the long, dewy, grass, tiU I was as thoroughly 

 wetted through as if I had been wading in a tank, when, 

 as the deer had reached heavy bamboo cover, and seemed 

 to be stiU. strong, I gave it up, and again made for the 

 river. On the way I came on a herd of red deer, grazing 

 about in an opening in the low jungle, where a fine spring 

 kept the grass beautifully green. They saw me before I 

 was within shot, however, and retreated into grass cover. 



