8 
THREE MONTHS IN PAHANG 
which we proposed to follow on our way towards the Jinka, 
and we ought to come across his fresb tracks with any thing 
like reasonable luck. We continued our journey and very 
shortly crossed the fresh spoor of a herd of seladang which 
had been feeding in a swamp through which the path 
roamed. There was no sign of a big bidl with this herd 
and as we wanted to make a camp at the edge of a clearing 
which 'Mem Prang said we had ample time to reach, we 
did not spend any time following this herd. We came 
out into Padang Ulu Sungei where we proposed to camp 
fairly early in the afternoon, and I at once recognised it 
as a padang that I had been to some ih'e years previously 
when after a herd of seladang which I had followed from 
Batu Rakit, not far from Bukit Si Gumpal. There was an old 
hut on the edge of the jungle which had been erected 
by some Malays who had brought their buffaloes to graze 
in the padang during an outbreak of cattle disease in 
the kayiipoii^s near by, and as this hut was still fairly habitable 
I soon had it put in a state of luxurious comfort. 
In the evening Yasin, 'Mem Prang and myself went out 
into the padang which was a large narrow one, and found at 
the far end the one-day* old tracks of a large herd of seladang, 
no doubt the same beiists whose tracks we had crossed earlier 
in the day. Continuing our tramps, we entered a small belt 
of jungle and soon found ourselves emerging into another 
padang and, with seladang in the vicinity, were prepared to 
come across something to interest us. We followed through 
this padang very cautiously and at the very end, when we had 
given up hope of seeing anything in the open^ we suddenly 
heard a seladang sniffing in the jungle just in front of 
us. Five minutes later he would have been well out in the 
open. We heard a slight movement and then all was silent. 
Presently we entered the jungle and at once picked up his 
tracks which shewed us that he had been just on the fringe of 
the jungle and hnd probably ^een us. Anyway he had quietly 
turned round and walked back along his own tracks. He had 
obviously not got our wind, otherwise he would most certainly 
have rushed off in the way that a seladang invariably does 
when he gets the hated scent of man. It was getting too dark 
to follow him far, and as he had not the track of either an 
old or very big beast we decided to return to camp. 
This bull was probably a young one which had wandered 
away from the adjacent herd. They often do this, and one 
may spend some time following up a solitary seladang only 
to find when you do see him that he has not a head worth 
shooting. 
