THE SAL FOEESTS 321 



long to gaze at tlie unwonted intruders, and saw the 

 tracks of a wild elephant sinking deep into the soft, black 

 soil. I was told afterwards that this elephant was one 

 which had broken loose from captivity about ten years 

 previously, and had since inhabited the dense covers about 

 the head of the Halon river. He afterwards annoyed the 

 forest o£B.cers not a little by systematically demoHshing all 

 the masonry boundary pillars erected by them round the 

 reserved forest. Really wild elephants do not come so 

 far west as this; the country to the east of Amarkantak 

 (the source of the Narbada), or at the most the Samni 

 valley, a httle nearer than that place, being their most 

 westerly range in this part of India. Formerly, however, 

 the whole of this country, and far to the west of it, was 

 the home of the wild elephant. The etymology of many 

 names, such as the " elephant enclosure," the " elephant 

 pool," etc., would suffice to indicate this; but, besides, 

 we have it distinctly recorded, in that valuable work, 

 The Institutes of Akber, that in the sixteenth century 

 elephants were found and captured in the Narbada valley 

 as far west as the Bijagarh and Handia Sirkars,^ which 

 lie partly to the west of the meridian of the present military 

 stations of Mhow and Asirgarh. This is probably the 

 most westerly range of the wild elephant that has been 

 recorded; and their subsequent disappearance over so 

 large a tract of country speaks volumes for the advance- 

 ment which has taken place in that period. 



The night I was at Topla, two tigers roared loudly 

 round about the camp. We were pitched in a little glade 

 in the sea of grass, and the effect in the clear, cold night 

 was very fine. The night voice of the tiger has a very 

 impressive sound, conveying, though not nearly so Jmd 

 as the bray of a jackass, the idea of immense power, as it 

 rolls and trembles along the earth. Four months later, 

 when I was encamped near Matin, in the forests of the 

 far east, I hstened one night to the most remarkable sere- 

 nade of tigers I ever heard. A pecuhar, long wail, hke 

 the drawn-out mew of a huge cat, first rose from a river 

 course a few hundred yards below my tent. Presently 

 1 Gladwin's Azeen Akbery, vol. ii. p. 249. 



