Elwes, H.J., 1930. Memoirs of travel, sport, and natural history. London, Ernest Benn, pp. 1-317
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Asia - South Asia - India - West Bengal |
| Subject: |
Distribution |
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Indian Rhino |
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[43] 16 January 1870 arrives in Madras, teams up with Captain BARNE and the Hon. F. Bridgeman.
[47] 30 March 1870 reaches Calcutta, stays at Government House, meets Lord Mayo. Gets introduction to Colonel Haughton, Commissioner of Cooch Behar.
[47] Arranged to accompany a hunting party that was being arranged by Dr Brougham in the Terai near Jelpigori, where Government elephants were placed at our service. Left Calcutta, reached Sahibgunge on 8 April, then to Purneah and to Siligori, dak bungalow.
Met Major Barnard, officer in command of the depot in Darjiling, and Lieutenant Grenfell of the 60th Rifles, who were to be the other members of the tiger-hunting party in the Terai.
[48] 15 April 1870 down to Siligori. where we found tents from Jelpigori and the elephants assembled, all ready for work. But as Dr. Brougham had not arrived, it was decided to make a short hunt up to a place called Sivoke, where the Tista river emerges from the hills, and where, in those days, rhinoceros and tigers were abundant. [Sivole = Sevoke, 26.88 / 88.47 NE of Siliguri, 20 km]
[49] Our first beat for rhinoceros took place on the other side of the Tista river, which was about a hundred yards wide and at that season was just fordable for elephants. Later we beat a dry watercourse, 400 yards wide, which was full of dense reeds, so tall that even when standing up in the howdah one could hardly see the next elephant. In these reeds the rhinoceros lay and slept during the day, having regular runs along which they passed without being seen from above. Once or twice there was a rush, and if the elephant was quick enough to follow it up, and the reeds were not too dense, one got a snap shot, but I cannot say that the sport was very successful, or that it is, under such conditions, a sport that attracts me. Once a rhinoceros charged and struck one of the elephants with his horn, causing a regular stampede, and it was very difficult to get them into line again.
Returned to Siligori
[50] 22 April 1870. Dr. Brougham had not arrived, so it was decided to form another camp farther from the foot of the hills, where the jungle was not so dense, and tigers were reported to be. On the way we halted at Titalya, where we found Mr. Davis, the police superintendent of the district, who had probably shot more rhinoceros in the Dooars than any man in India. The sepoys of a Gurkha regiment, which had been quartered at Jelpigori after the Bhutan war, were very keen and successful rhinoceros hunters, going out on foot in small parties and creeping along the paths formed by them in the dense reed beds. They had killed no less than seventy in the course of a year or so, and as the horns are highly valued in native medicine, they had made quite a lot of money by their hunting.
24 April 1870. Tulma river.
Back to Siliguri, house of Col. Haughton
[51] The next day, Bridgeman, Grenfell and I went to a place called Domohni, and camped in a grove of mangoes and areca palms. I added a few birds to my collection every day, though it was fearfully hot, and we began to feel the effects of the climate. Next morning Barnard, having got an extension of leave, arrived, and we went on to Ramshaihat, which was said to be a very good place for rhinoceros; it was a nasty malarious looking spot, and a large herd of semi-wild buffaloes made it both noisy and odoriferous. Next day the others went out two hours before daylight, hoping to catch the rhinoceros feeding in the open, but I did not feel fit, and Bridgeman came in very seedy with fever before noon.
Barnard wounded a rhinoceros in the hind leg, and followed it for a long way on his elephant, firing away all his cartridges without bagging the beast. [Ramshaihat = ? Ramsai, 26.72 / 88.85, SE corner of Gorumara, on Jaldhaka River]
It was now over 100' in the tent, and as Bridgeman was rather bad, I sent to Jelpigori for a palki to carry him in to the doctor as soon as possible, leaving Grenfell and Barnard in camp, where they shot several rhinoceros in the next few days. (Then went back to Darjiling, and Bridgeman on to England)
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Memoirs of travel, sport, and natural history
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