 Reference Base  Jungle life in India, Burma, and Nepal: some notes on the... |
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Faunthorpe, J.C., 1924. Jungle life in India, Burma, and Nepal: some notes on the Faunthorpe-Vernay Expedition of 1923. Natural History 24 (2): 174-198, figs. 1-20, map 1
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - Nepal |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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That enlightened ruler, my friend His Highness Maharajah Sir Chandra Shumshere Jung of Nepal, fully appreciated the importance of the expedition. He first arranged that we should visit the tract of country where His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and staff had recently shot tiger and rhino, but later proposed that we should enter the more inaccessible Gandak Valley, where there was a probability of our obtaining better specimens in a shorter space of time, once we got on the ground. But getting on the ground was not so easy. This interesting tract of country is cut off from the plains by ranges of broken hills, through which the Gandak River cuts a tortuous way to the plains, flanked in its course by a series of precipitous gorges. The valley is inhabited almost entirely by Tharus of a very fine type.
The only ways of entering the valley are by boat, towed up a swift-running stream, which takes two days, or on foot over the hills, where there is no road. In many places the trail re- sembles the dry bed of a mountain stream more than anything else. We took fifteen hours to do the first march of eleven miles. We came out by boat in five hours.
The Maharajah provided us with coolies and six elephants for transport, but although I have for the last fifteen years been accustomed to riding clephants over all sorts of country, the going was so bad that we did practically the whole march on foot, picking up on the way a very fine specimen of the Indian sloth bear.
The Nepalese Government keeps six or eight of its elephants in the Gandak Valley, near where we camped on the second day after entering Nepal, and some of the mahouts have the reputation of being expert rhinoceros trackers. We first started beating for rhino with elephants and drove out a female rhino with a small calf that lived in some patches of thorn and bush cover near the camp, which was on the riverbank. We refused to shoot them, as the calf was very small and the cow had a very short horn, and we wished to make certain of obtaining good specimens. The trackers expressed surprise and regret. With yhis lady rhino, whom we met frequently and whom we called Lizzie, we became quite friendly, but I think she was glad when we left. Vernay on one occasion crawled up to her private mud bath and watched her at abouy four yard's range. Dyott with his movie camera sat over the mud bath for the next two afternoons, but Lizzie did not appear. She had a distinctly peevish expression when I last saw her.
The local trackers did not seem keen to show us a big rhino, but a little heart-to-heart talk and the promise of good rewards to the trackers and also to the villagers induced the former to take us to a solitary male rhino, that was located in a valley in the Sal Forest, containing heavy bush cover and several pools of water. This enormous slate-colored beast, apparently quite unconcerned at the presence of several men in the trees who were watching him, allowed us to approach on elephants to within about seventy yards, from which range both Vernay and I fired, with the result that after galloping about a hundred yards, the rhino pitched over dead. He was a big and very old male, whose horn had been splintered and worn down to about 8 inches by digging or fighting. This rhino was shot several miles from camp, and the taxidermist and his satellites had to spend the night by the carcass.
The trackers were bitterly reproached because we wanted horns of at least 12 inches, and it was decided that it would be more sportsman-like and also more effective to stalk the remaining specimens on foot rather than to shoot at them from somewhat unsteady elephants. The next day, after a fruitless expedition under the guidance of the trackers, we were informed by the villagers on our return to camp that a rhino had been seen drinking, in a pool on the other side of the river. The energetic Vernay immediately crossed in a boat. I sat down and ordered tea.
Shortly after arrived the Nepalese Munshi (the District Officer's assistant), who had gone out with the local Nepalese Lieutenant to shoot birds with my gun. He brought us the news that there was a big rhino wallowing in a pool not far from the river, about a mile down stream. The Munshi was breathing heavily from excitement and exertion. His account of how they came to see the rhinoceros was amusing. He said he saw what he took to be a black water bird in the pool and said to the Lieutenant, ?Give me the gun and I will shoot that bird.' To which the Lieutenant replied, ?Brother, if there is any bird shooting to be done, I will do it myself.' They then appraached the supposed bird under cover of the heavy jungle on the bank above the pool, only to find that it was the horn and ears of a rhino which lay soaking in the water.
I jumped into a boat and hustled down stream. It was rapidly becoming dark, and after a hurried scramble for about half a mile over most uncomfortable pebbles, I saw the rhino still in the water and managed to get up near him just as he was leaving the pool. This proved to be a fine male with a horn rneasuring 12 + inches. He had evidently been fighting and had festering incised wounds on flank and in stomach.
On returning to camp I found that Vernay had accounted for the other rhino, also a very fine male, with a horn more than 12 inches in length. This animal after being wounded had tried to charge him but had been dropped in the grass on the river bank by another bullet from his .465 Holland. I was using a .400 Jeffery rifle.
Having now given the skinners two or three days of comparative rest, we got two female rhinos marked down to the south of camp, about five or six miles away. The first one retreated into impenetrable thorn scrub, but after wading through a swamp, we found the second standing in a dense clump of low trees. She had a half-grown calf with her, which was wandering about making most extraordinary noises, resembling the squawking of some large bird. We could see the mother dimly through the saplings, and Vernay stalked her on foot and shot her through the neck, at a range of about twenty yards, killing her with one bullet. The neck shot is the most deadly for rhino, aim being taken between the deep neck creases, which are such a marked feature of this curious animal, about two-thirds of the way up the neck. For this shot a soft-nosed bullet is best. The rhinoceros proved to be a fine specimen, but her horn was much worn down, measuring only about 8 inches. The taxidermist outfit spent another night out with this specimen, as in the darkness they could not return through the swamps. The Tharus built shelters of branches for them.
It was now March 14 and getting fairly warm and the skins were giving us some anxiety, as portions of the epidermis had begun to slip on one of them, but with a liberal application of a mixture of salt and alum this deterioration was arrested and, I believe, they arrived in New York in practically perfect condition.
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