256 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



and a considerable herd had fed recently in one of the 

 marshes, attracted thereto by a kind of weedy grass called 

 " dul " by natives, which grew abundantly in it, and forms a 

 favourite food. 



The above is a favourable sample of this sport, and quite 

 as good was to be had then at the sources of the Monass 

 river, on the opposite side of the Brahmapootra, and along 

 the base of the foot-hills of the Himalayas, a magnificent 

 sporting country, and probably the very choicest in India ; 

 abounding in elephants, rhinoceros, buffalo, gour, and marsh- 

 deer, with sambur, tigers, and bears in smaller numbers. I 

 have heard from my friend Colonel P., that during a trip of 

 ten days (in 1870 I think) through that part of Assam, 

 he and his party saw at least fifty rhinoceri, but for causes 

 explained by him, their bag was in no degree commensurate 

 with the numbers viewed, the elephants proving unsteady 

 and timid, and the shooting indifferent in consequence. There 

 are not many tigers to be found in that splendid field, those 

 animals preferring the comparatively cultivated tracts, and 

 the vicinity of great herds of cattle. 



Balls from modern rifles will penetrate even the shields 

 of the It. Indicus, if driven home by six or seven drams of 

 powder at moderate ranges, the best places for them to be 

 placed being the neck, behind the great shield on the shoulder, 

 and downwards at the junction of the head and neck. As 

 before observed, this is not a particularly attractive sport, 

 apart from its comparative rarity, and the wildness of the 

 jungles inhabited by the quarry ; but if it could be followed 

 on foot, its pleasures and excitements would be vastly aug- 

 mented ; that however can hardly ever be done, from the 

 nature of the jungles the animal affects, although by its 

 custom of resorting to certain spots to deposit its dung (as 

 do some antelopes and deer too), it offers an opening for 

 attack by the rifleman, who may choose to sit for a shot in a 

 " machan " or pit. 



When tea-gardens were first opened out in Assam, these 

 huge creatures were so plentiful and so fearless, that they 



