Other dreaded foes in the forest jungle are the Bhowra or ground bees, which are more properly a kind of hornet.  If by evil chance your elephant should tread on their mound-like nest, instantly an angry swarm of venomous and enraged hornets comes buzzing about your ears.  Your only chance is to squat down, and envelope yourself completely in a blanket.  Old sportsmen, shooting in forest jungle, invariably take a blanket Avith them in the howdah, to ensure themselves protection in the event of an attack by these blood-thirsty creatures.  The thick matted creepers too are a great nuisance, for which a bill-hook or sharp kookree is an invaluable adjunct to the other paraphernalia of the march.  I have seen a mahout swept clean off the elephant’s back by these tenacious creepers, and the elephants themselves are sometimes unable to break through the tangle of sinewy, lithe cords, which drape the huge forest trees, hanging in slender festoons from every branch.  Some of them are prickly, and as the elephant slowly forces his way through the mass of pendent swaying cords, they lacerate and tear the mahout’s clothes and skin, and appropriate his puggree.  As you crouch down within the shelter of your howdah, you can’t help pitying the poor wretch, and incline to think that, after all, shooting in grass jungle has fewer drawbacks and is preferable to forest shooting.

One of the drivers reported that he had seen a bear in the jungle, and we saw the earth of one not far from where the young tiger had fallen; it was the lair of the sloth bear or Ursus labialis, so called from his long pendent upper lip.  His spoor is very easily distinguished from that of any other animal; the ball of the foot shows a distinct round impression, and about an inch to an inch and a half further on, the impression of the long curved claws are seen.  He uses these long-curved claws to tear up ant hills, and open hollow decaying trees, to get at the honey within, of which he is very fond.  We went after the bear, and were not long in discovering his whereabouts, and a well-directed shot from S. added him to our bag.  The best bear shooting in India perhaps is in CHOTA NAGPOOR, but this does not come within the limits of my present volume.  We now beat slowly through the wood, keeping a bright look out for ants and hornets, and getting fine shooting at the numerous jungle fowl which flew about in amazing numbers.

The forest trees in this patch of jungle were very fine.  The hill seerees, with its feathery foliage and delicate clusters of white bugle-shaped blossom; the semul or cotton tree, with its wonderful wealth of magnificent crimson flowers; the birch-looking sheeshum or sissod; the sombre looking sal; the shining, leathery-leafed bhur, with its immense over-arching limbs, and the crisp, curly-leafed elegant-looking jhamun or Indian olive, formed a paradise of sylvan beauty, on which the eye dwelt till it was sated with the woodland loveliness.