 Reference Base  Large game shooting in Thibet, the Himalayas, Northern an... |
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Kinloch, A.A.A., 1892. Large game shooting in Thibet, the Himalayas, Northern and Central India. London, pp. i-viii, 1-291
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
Distribution |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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NB. Text in edition of 1885 appears largely identical.
[pp.61-65]
CHAPTER XI.
THE GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS.
Rhinoceros Unicornis.
Generally throughout India — Gaindd — Gaird.
The Great Indian Rhinoceros appears in former times to have inhabited the Terai throughout its whole length, but it has been gradually driven eastwards, until at the present day the Nepal Terai is its western limit. Even there its numbers have been much thinned, and it has lately been so highly prized that it has been reserved as Royal game, the late Sir Jung Bahadoor permitting no one to shoot it but himself.
Many Rhinoceros have been shot within the last few years in the vicinity of Julpaigori ; but there, partly owing to being constantly hunted, and partly owing to the clearance of large tracts for Tea cultivation, they are rapidly becoming scarcer, and the sportsman must travel still farther east before he finds them at all plentiful. In the eastern portion of the Bhutan Dooars and in Assam, wherever there are heavy reed jungles on the banks of rivers or on the margin of swamps, Rhinoceros may be met with, and occasionally several congre- gate in one covert. I have myself known six to be roused in a belt of ' mil' not more than half a mile long and three or four hundred yards wide.
The marvellous growth of the long grasses and reeds, which spring up during the rainy season in the long belt of country lying along the foot of the Eastern Himalayas, and on the ' chars' in the valley of the Brahmaputra and other great rivers, has often been described ; and the accounts received with incredulity by those who have never seen how vegetation thrives under the combined influences of a tropical sun and abundance of rain. Let those doubt who may, however, the fact remains that, year after year, in the short space of two or three months, these giant grasses shoot up to a height of from twenty to thirty feet, forming, with the wild cardamum, various other broad-leaved plants, and numerous creepers, a tangled cover which shelters the Elephant, the Rhinoceros and the Buffalo, as effectually as a field of standing corn affords concealment to the partridge or the quail. I have seen a line of about fifteen Elephants beating a strip of reeds not more than two hundred yards in width, and I could hardly see the grass shake. There was not as much commotion or indication of what was going on, as would be caused by a pack of beagles drawing a gorse covert.
Runs or tunnels among the high reeds, like magnified ' meuses ' of hares and rab- bits, show that the same paths through the thick jungle are generally made use of ; and the
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Rhinoceros, like several of the deer and antelope tribe, has the habit of dropping its dung in one place. Vast heaps of these droppings, the accumulation of years, are constantly to be seen, and native Shikaris frequently watch these spots and obtain a shot at easy distance. The Great Indian Rhinoceros is by no means ' a thing of beauty.' Huge and unwieldy in form, with an enormous head and general pig-like appearance, it is enveloped in what seems at first sight impenetrable armour, the thick and tuberculated skin hanging in massive folds, which attain their greatest thickness on the neck, shoulders, and quarters.
So thick and tough do these folds or shields appear, as to have given rise to the popular belief that the animal is nearly invulnerable, and that it is only by striking the joints in his harness that a bullet can penetrate.
I recollect an amusing story of a soldier in the Mutiny who was placed in the guard-room for shooting a tame Rhinoceros which had been captured by his regiment. His defence was that he had read in a book that the hide of the animal was bullet-proof; and being of an enquiring turn of mind, had determined to put the theory to the test ! As the shot was well directed, the unfortunate subject of the experiment fell dead, and the prize fund was several thousand rupees the poorer.
As a matter of fact, the skin is quite soft when fresh ; a bullet will penetrate anywhere with the greatest ease, and a hunting knife can be driven through it with the slightest amount of force. When dried, of course it becomes extremely hard, and used to be in great request for the manufacture of shields. The hide, when polished, is very handsome and semi-trans- parent, and when held up to the light looks exactly like tortoise shell, the tubercles giving it a beautiful mottled appearance.
The horn of this species seldom exceeds a foot in length ; it is composed of agglutinated hairs, and is not firmly attached to the skull, but rests on a slight bony excrescence on the snout, from which it is easily removed, a day or two after death. Contrary to general belief, the Rhinoceros does not make use of its horn as a weapon of offence ; the wounds which it occasionally inflicts on Elephants are caused by its long sharp incisors, with which it can give a very formidable bite.
The horn is highly valued by natives both of India and China, and fetches a high price in the market ; being worth from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 according to weight. Hindoos use it in some of their religious ceremonies, while the Chinese ascribe to it the virtues of the famous Venetian glass, and believe that drinking cups manufactured from it possess the property of indicating the presence of poison. The foot of the Rhinoceros is peculiarly formed, having only three toes, and its trefoil- shaped track cannot be mistaken for that of any other animal.
Ungainly animal as the Rhinoceros is, it is possessed of considerable speed, and although its usual gait when disturbed is a long swinging trot, it occasionally breaks into a lumbering gallop, the pace of which is surprising. Owing to their formation Rhinoceros do not readily roll over on their sides, and when shot they almost always die in a recumbent position, as if they had quietly sunk down to sleep.
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The flesh is excellent, and cannot easily be distinguished from beef ; indeed it is better than most beef that one sees in India. The tongue, which is very curiously formed, is parti- cularly good.
The following are the measurements of an old male which I shot, but larger specimens are to be met with : —
Height at withers 5 feet 9 inches or 17 hands 1 inch.
Length from nose to root of tail
Length of tail
Girth
Girth of forearm
There are two ways in which Rhinoceros may be hunted ; one by quietly tracking up the animal on a single Elephant until he is at last found in his lair, or perhaps standing quite unconscious of danger — the other, by beating him out of jungle with a line of Elephants, the guns being stationed at the points where he is most likely to break cover. In the latter case it is necessary to have reliable men with the beaters, who can exercise authority and keep them in order, for both Mahouts and Elephants have the greatest dread of the huge brute, who appears to be much more formidable than he really is. When disturbed he makes a tremendous noise crashing through the reeds, and grunting and snorting with steam engine power, but unless driven to extremities by being hemmed into a corner, I believe that it is but seldom that he will really charge home. I have not yet witnessed an instance of his doing so.
In April, 1878, I received an invitation from a friend, who had the command of many Elephants in one of the best heavy-game shooting districts in Bengal, to join him in an expedition against Buffalo and Rhinoceros. Of course I gladly accepted, and on arriving at my friend's house I was pleased to find that our shooting party consisted of only three, the very best number for such sport. Large shooting parties are very good fun, and probably (though not always) more game may be bagged than with a smaller party ; but as far as the actual sport is concerned, I infinitely prefer to have not more than two companions. When there are many guns out there is nearly always a lot of wild firing, and it is fre- quently impossible to tell who has actually shot an animal. With three guns, and a manageable number of Elephants, the cream of sport may be enjoyed, and each sportsman is independent and has his fair share of the shooting, without being interfered with by, or interfering with, others.
Our first day was blank as regarded the bag, although one Rhinoceros was wounded ; much of our time being lost owing to an Elephant sticking in a quicksand, from which we had the greatest difficulty in extricating her, after laboring hard for several hours. The second day we only shot Buffaloes, which inhabited the same jungles as the Rhinoceros, so that we could never tell which animal would be likely to break covert in any given beat, and it so happened that we several times found both together. Our third day's sport afforded an instance of this, and I succeeded in killing my first
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' Rhino,' as we always called them for the sake of brevity, and as I shall henceforth call them in this narrative.
We had tracked a wounded bull Buffalo into a large and very thick covert, into which it was useless to follow him with any idea of getting a shot. The three guns therefore went on ahead, and took up their positions at the other end of the covert, while the pad Elephants were ordered to form line and beat steadily through the jungle. After waiting a long time at my post, I heard some large animal crashing through the reeds, and as the line of beaters advanced,- the waving of the grass betrayed its movements. It came on very slowly, occa- sionally stopping for some time to listen, and again making a cautious advance. I remained still as death, but I was in a great state of anxiety lest my Elephant should become uneasy, and give the alarm. Fortunately, he remained silent, and at length the ' Rhino,' anticipating no danger ahead, and pressed by the steadily advancing line of Elephants behind him, poked his ugly head out of the reeds within twenty yards of me. I could only see his snout and his horn, and aimed above the latter for his forehead. I either took a bad aim, or my Elephant moved slightly as I fired, for, as I aftenvards found, my bullet merely grazed the snout, cutting a deep furrow along the base of the horn. As the ' Rhino ' wheeled round, I gave him another bullet in the centre of his ribs, and he rushed back into the reeds and through the beaters with an angry grunt.
I was using a 12-bore rifle with hardened spherical bullets, and seven drams of powder, so I felt certain that the ' Rhino ' was mortally wounded, and accordingly two or three of the beaters were ordered to follow his track. They had not gone far before they shouted that they had found him, and on hastening to the spot, I had the satisfaction of contemplating my first ' Rhino.' My second bullet had struck him in the ribs, and passing forward into his luno-s, had caused death by suffocation. The huge animal lay with his legs doubled under him, as if fast asleep, and it required some exertion on the part of one of our largest Elephants to roll him over. The horn was an average- sized one, thick at the base, but not very long. Although it was a blazing hot day, we celebrated the event with a glass of whisky, and then superintended the cutting off his head and the removal of the shields, while a number of long strips were cut from his hide, to be afterwards made into whips. We selected a few choice pieces of meat for ourselves, and in a very short time scores of villagers from the neighbourhood flocked to the spot, delighted at the chance of obtaining a good supply of flesh.
I took the measurements of this ' Rhino ' very carefully : they are those given above.
Another ' Rhino ' was wounded during the afternoon, but we lost it among high reeds, and a savage bull Buffalo created a divertissement, which prevented us from continuing our search. Next morning D. was unable to go out shooting, so S. and I went to look for the animals wounded yesterday, at least two Buffaloes having been severely hit in addition to the ' Rhino.' We were not long in finding a cow Buffalo, which had fallen in a sandy nullah;
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and some vultures wheeling over the thickest part of the jungle drew our attention to the spot where we discovered the ' Rhino ' — a small female — lying dead. A little separated from the large covert was a belt of high reeds on the bank of a river, and as it was a most likely looking place, we proceeded to beat it. S. went to the end of the covert, while I skirted the edge, keeping just ahead of the line of beaters. It was not long before I heard a ' Rhino,' which moved slowly along some two hundred yards in front of the Elephants, occasionally approaching the edge of the covert and again plunging deeper into it. At length he made up his mind to at least see whether the coast was clear or not, but hardly had his head appeared, when he drew back, and grunting loudly, charged through the beaters. I immediately called them out of the jungle, and taking them back half a mile, re-formed the line, and recommenced the beat. On coming to the end, however, I found that we had not gone back far enough, and that the ' Rhino ' was still behind us.
S. therefore went to the other end, and we proceeded to beat in the reverse direction. The ' Rhino ' was again roused, and after dodging about for some time he at length trotted out close to me. My Elephant was unsteady and I missed the shot at the head, and as the ' Rhino ' turned away, my second bullet struck him close to the root of the tail, a pretty deadly place with the heavy charges that I was using. The ' Rhino ' now went straight to S., who dropped him with a couple of shots. On examining him, we found that he had a very perfect sharp horn, about a foot long. He was covered with scars from fighting, and had lost one eye !
On subsequent days we shot with varied luck, bagging several more ' Rhino,' and losing others which we ought to have got. The greatest difficulty was to get the beaters to keep their places when a ' Rhino ' was on foot. As soon as the great beast began grunting and rushing about, they would scream out that he was attacking their Elephants, and with few exceptions they would do their best to get out of the way, and afford the ' Rhino ' a clear line of retreat.
At length, after a very enjoyable week, we came to our last beat, a long narrow belt of reeds with a small marshy stream trickling through it. D. went to the extreme end ; I was about a hundred and fifty yards from him, and S. came along with the beaters. As they approached I heard a ' Rhino ' coming on ahead of them, and he passed me within a few yards, but without showing himself. Directly afterwards, two shots from D., both of which hit him hard, sent him back in my direction, and as he passed me at a swinging trot within thirty yards, I got a clear shot at him. My bullet struck him fair in the very centre of the shield, and the enormous brute rolled heels over head like a rabbit — stone dead. This was the only instance we witnessed of a ' Rhino ' dying otherwise than in a recumbent position, but none of the others were thus shot dead in full career. This was the largest ' Rhino ' that we killed during the trip, and had the most massive horn. I regret that I did not keep his measurements.
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