FORESTS OF GORAKHPUR AND NEPAL TERAI 245 



and, being very fat and immensely wide, he must have 

 weighed over 22 hundredweight. A strong Httle Gurkha 

 chaprasi undertook to cut off the head and bring it in a 

 hackery into camp. Stories are told of Gurkhas cutting 

 off heads of buffaloes with one slice of a kukri. On 

 this occasion it took about thirty strokes of a very sharp 

 kukri to sever the head from the body. He got two 

 chamars to take off the skin, which was immensely thick, 

 an inch and a half at the neck. When pegged out on the 

 ground it was big enough to carpet a dining-room. I 



gave it to W n, who made a boat of it, by stretching 



it on a wooden frame ; and he shot many wild ducks from 

 it in the jhils near Gorakhpur. 



The Nepal Terai is a very extensive and typical Indian 

 forest. It contains magnificent timber. There are great 

 stretches of long grass and tangled jungle. Here are the 

 haunts of all kinds of game, and herds of wild elephants 

 live undisturbed in its recesses. Tigers are abundant, 

 and there are but few inhabitants, principally herders of 

 cattle, which are brought for the winter's grazing. Few 

 can remain in the rains, when vegetation is rampant, 

 and the jungle deadly from malaria and impenetrable. 

 Jung Bahadur, the clever Prince of Nepal, lived at 

 Khatmandu (pronounced Khatmaroo). He was very 

 fond of shooting, and kept an immense number of ele- 

 phants — over 400. Also he had organized a kheda for 

 catching elephants, in secluded valleys between rocky 

 precipices, where the wild herds were driven in and en- 

 closed. He had weU-trained fighting tuskers, and his 

 elephant-catchers were celebrated for their cunning and 

 bravery. But he preserved the pohcy of permitting no 

 Europeans to travel in his territory or cross the frontier. 

 It was only as a great favour that he issued passes to 

 British officers hke the Commissioner of Gorakhpur to 



