326 THE HIGHLAl^DS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



Over all this country roams the wild bufialo, and in 

 the forests north and east of Amarkantak were then found 

 large herds of wild elephants, which descended at the 

 ripening of the crops of Chattis'garh to the skirts of the 

 forest, doing immense damage, and fornung a serious 

 obstacle to the cultivation of the country. To penetrate 

 to their haunts, ascertain their numbers, and propose means 

 for their destruction, was another object of our expedition. 



In the end of January I descended the Rajadhar pass 

 from the Mandla district, and marched across the Chattis'- 

 garh plaia, where antelope, ducks, snipe, etc., afiorded 

 perpetual occupation for the gun, to the station of Rai'piir, 

 where I met the Chief Commissioner's camp and my future 

 companion in this expedition — Captain B., of Her Majesty's 



Regiment. Thence we proceeded to the eastern and 



southern forests, marching rapidly to get from one portion 

 of these forests to another, where days and weeks would be 

 passed in tramping about the hills and making notes, the 

 great part of which would possess no interest for the 

 general reader. We never allowed ourselves to linger for 

 sport ; but the herds of bufialoes are in some parts of this 

 country so numerous that it would have been almost 

 impossible to avoid encountering them. 



The extreme western range of the wild bufialo^ in 

 Central India is almost exactly marked by the 80th meri- 

 dian of longitude, or in physical features by the Wyn- 

 Ganga tributary of the Godavari river, and below their 

 junction almost by the latter river itself. I say almost, 

 because in a trip down the Godavari river which I made 

 during the rains, I saw the tracks of a herd of bufialoes 

 on the western side of that river, at the " third barrier " ^ 

 south of the station of Chanda, that is, a short distance to 

 the west of the 80th meridian. The natives, however, told 



^ Buhalus ami. 



* These "barriers " are points in tte course of this river where 

 its otherwise still, lake-like character is broken by spaces in which 

 the river assumes more the character of a mountain stream. They 

 interrupt what would otherwise be an unbroken stretch of waterway 

 into the heart of the country, and are now being dealt with by a stafi 

 of skilful engineers. Probably a herd of buffaloes would find it easier 

 to cross at one of these barriers than elsewhere. 



