DISAPPEARANCE OF WILD ANIMALS 305 



rhinoceros, the elephant, and the Hon. And first as 

 to the rhinoceros. 



The Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mogul 

 dynasty, entered India in the year 1525 of our era. 

 He halted with his army for some time at Peshawar, 

 and there amused himself, as he relates in his memoirs, 

 with hunting the rhinoceros. Now I cannot speak 

 with certainty, for I have never visited that part of 

 the Punjaub, but I do not believe that the rhinoceros 

 is now found either in the neighbourhood of Peshawar 

 or anywhere in the adjacent regions, nor that it was 

 there found at the time of our acquisition of the 

 country. 



If in this belief I am correct, then it appears that 

 in the course of little more than three centuries the 

 rhinoceros had entirely disappeared from extensive 

 tracts of country where previously it was abundant ; 

 and it is to be noted that the country during the 

 whole of this period had continued under native rule : 

 its conditions, therefore, are not likely to have much 

 changed. We may presume that the forests and 

 wastes which sheltered the rhinoceros in the days of 

 Babur had but slightly, if at all, diminished in extent 

 at the period when the territory in which they are 

 •situated passed under the British rule. 



But further, in the year 1803 we acquired all that 

 part of the upper provinces which lies at the base of 

 the Himalaya and Shewalic ranges. I have always 

 understood that the rhinoceros was then found through- 

 out the entire length of forest which extends below 

 these mountains ; but at the time when I had charge 

 X 



