MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 155 



ten miles (in very thick forest) from an assistant, Mr. A. M. Burn-Murdoch, 

 now Deputy Conservator of Forests; he wished to send me a note dn busi- 

 ness, and sent a peon with it. The peon, after having been gone a few 

 hours, returned to his camp saying he had found a dead wild tusker in the 

 forest, quite fresh. Mr. Burn-Murdoch informed the head man of the 

 nearest village, and ordered him to proceed to the carcase to take charge 

 of the tusks as Government property. The villagers ate the flesh, and on 

 my interviewing the head man he informed me that it was perfectly fresh, 

 and had not a mark on its body to show how it come by his death. I notified 

 the find all over the district. There was no Government animal missing, 

 nor any belonging to the Bombay-Burma Trading Company. I examined 

 the tracks, and was convinced the animal belonged to a herd of about a dozen 

 which had recently crossed towards the Chin Hills. The tusks \ieve 

 consequently sold as Government property, and the sum paid for them 

 may be seen in the books of the Forest Department of the division to 

 this day. 



In the same division one of my hunters told me that a large male tuskless 

 elephant died one rainy season on a sandbank in the river after having 

 been on the sandbank two days. As I could not confirm this with any 

 European evidence, owing to the animal being tuskleas, it was not reported 

 to the Government, I give this report for what it is worth, though I knew 

 the hunter well for six years, and always found him truthful and not given 

 to exaggeration. That large game do find their way when dfad into the 

 rivers, however, I can prove, as in 1894 a huge bull gaur came floating down 

 the Yu River, Upper Burma, dead, but quite fresh. It was salved and 

 eaten by the villagers, and the head man brought the remarkably fine head, 

 to me, and I gave the head to Capt, Perkins, I.S.C., who, I believe, has it 

 now. 



Again, Mr. Hannyngton, of the Bombay-Burma Trading Company, once 

 when tracking wild elephants in the Teungchoing-yi forests, came on to a dead 

 wild female ; she had been dead about two days. She was not a Govern- 

 ment animal nor one belonging to the Company, and Mr. Hannyngton told 

 me that he was convinced she was a wild one, 



I was for six years in charge of the frontier revenue station, where all 

 forest produce from the semi-independent country had to pay duty. Tusks, 

 old and brown, were continually being brought down for the payment of the 

 Government royalty, and on my questioning the Chins they declared they 

 had found them in the forests. This, however, is little proof, for I believe 

 the wild Chins use poisoned arrows, which, of course, would account for 

 dead animals being found, 



C. W. A. BRUCE, F.L.S., 



Forest Department, Burma. 

 ('TAe above appeared in the " Fiddy) 



