THICK JUNGLE. 255 



bringing it down upon its knees, but only for a second or two. 

 Before I could exchange the discharged muzzle-loader rifle 

 for a loaded one, Rhino was off again, making for the deep 

 " nullah " on the left, towards which we all turned, and being 

 on that flank, it was my luck to view it as it showed on the 

 bank before plunging down with another ball in the neck, 

 which laid it dead in the water below. The sides of the 

 stream being almost perpendicular, we had no little trouble 

 in getting down to cut off the head and shields. This proved 

 to be a young but full-grown cow, with a slender horn of 

 moderate length. 



We had killed three and wounded at least as many more 

 that day, and might altogether have roused from first to last 

 ten or a dozen small and great, though some were never once 

 sighted in that dense covert. Turning homewards we gained 

 the tents about sunset, picking up on our way half-a-dozen 

 marsh and hog-deer for our hungry camp followers. 



Having seen so many rhinoceri that day, we devoted 

 the next to the same pursuit, but killed only one, although 

 at one time we had seemingly half-a-dozen ahead of us. The 

 previous day's firing had driven many of them farther away 

 towards the foot of the Garo hills without having had any 

 effect upon other game, of which we met with great numbers, 

 without finding a single tiger in these, its well-known haunts ; 

 nevertheless we enjoyed a good day's sport, and made a large 

 bag both in weight and numbers, viz., a rhinoceros, five 

 buffaloes (unsought), nine marsh and seven hog- deer, two 

 peacocks, a floriken, five brace of " kyah " partridge, and a 

 pink-headed duck. The scenery near the foot of the hills 

 was wild in the extreme, and in the eyes of a sportsman lovely 

 beyond compare ; but the jungles were so extensive and dense 

 that our line of eighteen elephants was lost in it, and had we 

 not carried on some of them flags of white cloth on bamboo 

 poles to regulate our movements in wheeling, and to dress the 

 line, we should sometimes have inevitably lost each other, or 

 got astray, particularly in beating round morasses. We saw 

 no elephants on that occasion, but their tracks were numerous, 



