58 J. Cockburn — On llie recnit existence 0/ Rhinoceros indicus. [No. 1, 



fortress in 1529, never having had the good fortune to meet with a copy 

 of that rare work, Erskine's " Baber," 



The accompanying tracing of an archaic petroglyph from the Ghor- 

 mangur rock-shelter near the fortress of Bidjeygurh in the Mirzapore 

 district, testifies to the recent existence of the Rhinoceros over this tract. 



This drawing is of surpassing interest not so much on account of the 

 portrait of this huge animal fast receding before civilization, and practically 

 extinct in continental India — or of the vivid and spirited hunting s(iene 

 probably many centuries old which it recalls, as owing to the clear and char- 

 acteristic manner in which the spears used are depicted. 



These spears I consider to have been made of wood and stone only. 

 The reasons for this conclusion will be stated further on. 



Admirably executed drawings of Bos ami, Bos gaurus, Rhinoceros, 

 Cephas, &c. occur in most of the rock shelters in the neighbourhood and at 

 first sight might be supposed to be of great antiquity, but it appears to me 

 that they need not be more than 300 years old, if not less. For if the 

 rhinoceros and elephant were found near Chunar on the banks of the Ganges 

 in 1529 they were probably more numerous at the same time and continued 

 to exist later, on the banks of the Sone where these shelters occur, a country 

 yet covered with forests harbouring the tiger, bear and sambar. 



Granting the possibility of these drawings being comparatively mo- 

 dern, we find ourselves face to face with the astounding conclusion that the 

 " stone age" has but recently passed away among the aborigines of the 

 Ky mores. 



A state of stone culture calls up a host of anthropological questions ; 

 but before going further I may mention that I had long before come 

 to the conclusion that the aborigines of the Kymores were in a stone age 

 as late as the 10th century A. D. The remarkable piece of sculpture from 

 Kalinjar, now in the Indian Museum, which was supposed in the short 

 note by H. J. Rivett-Carnac, Esq. (read by me before the Society, P. A. S. B. 

 January, 1883,) to represent an aborigine armed with a stone axe is possibly, 

 from the absolute identity of the axes and chert implements found in the rock 

 shelters of Mirzapore and on the surface in the vicinity of Kalinjar, intend- 

 ed to represent one of the same race as those who hunted the rhinoceros in 

 Mirzapore. 



The tracing of the rhinoceros hunt Plate [VII] is a faithful tracing 

 of a petroglyph in the Ghormangur cave in Pergunnah Bidjeygurh of the 

 Mirzapore District. 



This cave was visited by me on the 17th of March 1883. Its exact 

 position is two miles due south of Mow Kullan bridge, and within three 

 miles of the celebrated fortress of Bidjeygurh, and five of the river Sone. 

 This rock shelter has the appearance of a huge mushroom. It is a 



