FORESTS OF GORAKHPUR AND NEPAL TERAI 251 



shingle fully a mile across, with shallow water flowing 

 perhaps a quarter of a mile wide. It needed caution 

 to pick our way so as to avoid quicksands and keep on 

 the hard ground, and a very sagacious old elephant was 

 put in front to lead the way. All the others followed in 

 her tracks. We were all day beating through a very 

 extensive jungle of khair, babul, and other trees, and lost 

 our way, so that it was night before we succeeded in 

 getting back to the river and finding the ford. On leaving 

 the tree-covered bank the old elephant was our guide. 

 Before us was a broad waste of sand and glistening 

 water, just visible in the darkness, but absolutely nothing 

 to indicate the direction of our route ; yet the old 

 elephant brought us out exactly in the footsteps she had 

 made in the morning. 



On one occasion our camp was on the bank of the 

 Gandak river, which issues from the hills to the eastward 

 of the Gorakhpur district, dividing it from Bengal. This 

 is a fine tributary of the Ganges, rising under the peaks of 

 Dawalagiri in Nepal, and one branch of it flowing past 

 Khatmandu. It joins its waters to the Ganges at Patna. 

 The river is about a mile wide when its bed is filled during 

 the rains, but in the cold season it is about a quarter that 

 width, flowing rapidly, and not more than a few feet deep, 

 cutting its way through beds of sand and well-rolled 

 gravel in ever-changing windings. Its cool waters are 

 quite transparent, and there are varied reaches of high 

 banks with trees overhanging, or sandy flats and islands 

 out in the wide stream. These are favourite places for 

 the long-nosed crocodiles, ghariyals or gavials, to bask 

 in the sun. As many as twenty could be counted every 

 morning, lying like great logs of trees about 250 yards 

 from the tents. Being anxious to secure a fine head, we 

 had several shots at them. It needs very careful placing 



