That they did not exist on buns in
the jungle was due to a lack of opportunity rather than to a lack of
inclination, so I argued that the dainty would prove just as
irresistible to a bear in the jungle as it did to his brethren in the
big pit near the entrance to the Zoo, and ignoring the rather cheap
gibes of the rest of the party, I provided myself with half-a-dozen
buns, three of which I attached by long strings to the front of my
howdah, where they swung about like an edible pawnbroker's sign. The
bear was lying in a very small patch of bamboo, and broke cover at
once. As I had anticipated, the three swinging buns proved absolutely
irresistible to him. He came straight up to me, I shot him with a
smooth-bore, and he is most decorative in his present position, but it
was all due to the buns. The Maharajah told me, much to my surprise,
that far more natives were killed by bears than by tigers in that part
of India.
The jungle was very diversified: in places it consisted of flat
tablelands of scrub, varied with broad open spaces broken by thick
clumps ("topes" they are called by Anglo-Indians) of bamboo. In other
parts there were rocky ravines covered with forest growth, and on the
low ground far-stretching and evil-smelling swamps spread themselves,
the home of the rhinoceros and water buffalo.
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