120 ASSAM AND RHINOCEROS 



Some are left in Burmah and a few are to be found 

 in Assam, where efforts are being made to get them 

 to multiply in sanctuaries. 



There is difficulty in obtaining permission to 

 shoot near the reserved forest, and everywhere 

 it is very difficult to approach a rhinoceros in 

 India. 



So far as I can make out, it is ever a " stern 

 chase." You get on the track of a rhino, follow 

 the trail almost day and night a la " Trail of the 

 Yellow-stone Stag," and if you can last as long as 

 or longer than the rhino you may get a shot at 

 him. He lives in swampy grass jungle, moving 

 about not like an elephant on paths made by crush- 

 ing down the reeds, but in tunnels bored through 

 them. 



The " grass " is from 12 to 20 feet high, and 

 rhinos burrow through it as a mole does under the 

 ground. These tunnels are very noticeable, but 

 their ramifications render it impossible to follow 

 them on foot. They form a labyrinth. Indeed, 

 the daily occupation of a rhino seems to be to 

 cross and twist and double in every direction except 

 in a straight line towards the spot he is making for, 

 generally a very muddy " wallow." 



As a consequence tracking the Indian rhino is an 

 excessively difficult operation, and even the best 

 of trackers are constantly at fault and have to 

 retrace their steps or " cast round " in the hope of 

 restriking the trail. 



Thanks to the kindness of the Provincial Govern- 

 ment of Eastern Bengal and Assam, and to the 

 assistance rendered by the local Government 

 officials, I was able to arrange a shoot in a pesti- 



