AN EXPLOEATION IN THE FAR EAST 343 



and there with isolated hills. A long valley led up into 

 this region from the foot of Laafagarh, in. which a few 

 specks of village clearings could be seen. Everywhere 

 else was utter waste. Far to the west a pink promontory 

 glowed hazily in the setting sun. That was Amarkantak, 

 the source of the Narbada, to which I took the reader at the 

 opening of this chapter. 



Many wild animals had their haunts in the wooded 

 sloping skirts of the hiU. The harsh, grating roar of the 

 panther was heard nearly every night ; sambar deer were 

 sometimes seen picking their way up the hill from the plains 

 in the early morning ; and once I saw a black bear hurrying 

 up the rocks to his cavern long after the sun had risen. 

 Gangs of Hanuman monkeys stalked about the ruined 

 ramparts and the precipice they crowned. On the top 

 were many hares, peafowl, and painted partridges; and 

 my dogs had endless chases after the yellow wild cat,^ 

 and the tree cat,^ which were both more numerous on this 

 hill than anywhere else I have seen them. Once when 

 strolling round the camp in the dusk, looking for a shot at 

 the green pigeons, which every night came to feed on the 

 wild fruits, I saw a pair of gleaming eyes looking down on 

 me from the dark shadow of an overhanging banyan tree ; 

 and a charge of No. 4 brought down among the dogs a fine 

 red lynx,^ which they soon dispatched in his wounded 

 condition. It takes hard fighting for the best of dogs 

 to kill an unwounded lynx, as my pack knew to their 

 cost. 



I pined sadly over my imprisonment on the top of this 

 hill. The chmate was milder by many degrees than it 

 had been below, with no hot wind, even at this height of 

 the summer season; and it was in particular delightfully 

 cool at night. But there were only a few weeks remaining 

 of the dry season ; and we had to march nearly two himdred 

 miles after leaving the elephant country to get into Jub- 

 bulpilr ; so as soon as I could move at all, I descended the 

 hill, and marched on an elephant for Matin. At a place 

 called Sirki, fifteen miles from Laafa, a tiger had just been 



1 jp. chaus. ^ Paradoxus musanga. 



* F. Caragal. 



