254 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



inches in length, unlike the other's, which was a very good 

 one, weighing two and a quarter pounds. After this we 

 halted to rest and refresh for a couple of hours beside a wide 

 " jheel," in which our elephants thoroughly cooled and enjoyed 

 themselves in the succulent green young grasses and rushes. 



At two in the afternoon the "howdahs" were re-mounted 

 and line formed facing the north-west, with the intention of 

 sweeping round through some heavy covert not yet explored, 

 in the midst of which a narrow but deep " nullah " ran in a 

 tortuous course, with many rhinoceros trails passing down 

 and along its banks. From the great height and thickness of 

 this jungle of reeds, seemingly never burnt, the beat proved 

 most arduous, the " nullah " or its many branches turning up 

 before us on all sides, rendering our task most tedious. How- 

 ever, we were kept on the alert by putting up a rhino, or 

 stumbling upon a buffalo every now and again, and we could 

 hear them plainly enough without seeing them at all, no 

 matter how close they might be, if not under the muzzles of 

 our rifles. At last, after an hour's hard work, one of the 

 party viewed a rhinoceros going down the bank of the main 

 "nullah," with the apparent intention of throwing us off by 

 crossing it, but on receiving a bullet in its back it turned up 

 again and made a blind sort of a charge, in the course of 

 which two or three more balls told without dropping it. We 

 now lost it for a minute or two, but recovering its broad 

 track we followed at best pace, and overhauled it in company 

 with two others making play ahead. The two un wounded 

 animals got away round our right flank, probably back to the 

 spot from which they had been roused, but the wounded one, 

 now bleeding profusely, passed obliquely to the left of the 

 line with great snortings, and making a terrific noise as it 

 crushed the stout reeds, which grew there higher than our 

 heads as we stood in our " howdahs/' in its savage rushes to 

 get at its unseen enemies. Passing before me at a distance 

 of only a few yards, but quite invisible, Rhino received from 

 my rifle two shots, the first causing it to turn fiercely upon 

 my elephant, when the second struck it in the shoulder, 



