Bhutan -- Description and travel; British -- India; India -- Description and travel
We leave the elephants' trail and emerge on a "fire line"; for in these
Government forests parallel belts, about twenty yards broad, are cleared
annually in an attempt to confine the ravages of the jungle fires in the
hot weather. They run east and west and are a mile apart, so that they
serve not only as roads, but also as guides to one's whereabouts in the
forest. As we come suddenly out on the fire line we see two or three
fox-like animals playing in it. They are the dreaded wild dogs which do
infinite damage to game. Even the tiger regards them with dislike and
fear; for, small as they are, they will worry him in a pack, chasing him
night and day and giving him no rest. They keep him always on the move,
remaining out of his reach until he is exhausted from fatigue and want
of sleep. They are pretty little animals, generally reddish, with sharp
ears and bushy tails. As soon as these stray dogs in the fire line see
us they bolt off into the jungle before I can get a shot at them; for on
account of the harm they do to the game every sportsman tries to kill
them. I once came upon a _sambhur_ and her fawn being attacked by a
number of these jungle pests. The hind was circling round, trying to
keep between her offspring and the enemy, and striking at the assailants
with her sharp hoof. Whilst some of the dogs engaged her in front others
tried to dash in at the fawn, retreating at once when the angry mother
swung round at them. They had already hamstrung the poor little beast
and torn out one of its eyes; so, when they fled as soon as they caught
sight of my elephant and the hind ran off, I put the wretched fawn out
of its misery with a merciful shot.
Across the fire line we entered the jungle again. Along a branch over
our heads a small animal runs swiftly and leaps into a neighbouring
tree. It is a giant squirrel, a pretty animal with long and bushy tail
and thick black fur, except on the breast, where it is white. It peeps
at us from behind the tree-trunk and then is lost to sight in the
foliage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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