64 J. Cockburn — On tJie recent ea^isfence of Rhinoceros indicus. [No. 1 



genus of Cuvier to detect. With regard to the second objection as to the existence of 

 forests in the vicinity, there is in my opinion ample evidence to show that tree 

 forests existed not only near Chunar, but right through the Gangetic Duab as high as 

 Cawnpore till the 16th century and later. 



It requires same abstraction to conceive that this now semi-arid region largely 

 productive of reh and usar was covered with forest so recently, but such was without 

 doubt the case. Wild elephants are stated in the Ayeen Akbari to have been found 

 near Kalinjar in Banda, in Kuntil, in Mirzapore, Kurrah Manickpore, in Allahabad and 

 Chunar. These points define a former forest tract throughout which stone implements 

 occur. 



Rhinoceros indicus, it may be noted, frequents grass by preference, while Rhinoceros 

 sondaicus is a forest and mountain loving species. But the habitat of R. indicus 

 at the present day, the great grass jungles on the banks of the Brahmaputra, and 

 those of the Himalayan terai are in either case bordered by forest, in which the 

 rhinoceros is occasionally found, and seeks refuge when pursued. In the occurrence 

 of both the rhinoceros and elephant near Chunar in 1529 there is evidence that 

 extensive forests did exist in the immediate vicinity of the river's bank ; for granting 

 that the rhinoceros did frequent the heavy grass which was certain in places to 

 have covered the alluvium within the immediate influence of the great river, such 

 would not have been the case with the elephant, for the food of Elephas indicus consists 

 of succulent leaves, shoots and twigs, and it requires large tracts of forest to maintain 

 itself ; differing in this respect from its African ally. We have, however, the evidence 

 of a modern Englishman which shows that my supposition regarding the bordering 

 forest is correct. Capt. Blunt who marched from Chunar to Ellora in 1795 records 

 that a " thick forest" existed between the Jurgo nadi below Chunar and Suktesgurh, 

 (Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII, 1801, p 57.) The Chinese Pilgrim who in the 7th century 

 marched from Allahabad to Kosim stated that he passed for several days through a 

 vast forest infested with wild bulls. I have marched by what is considered by General 

 Cunningham the same route, and was struck by the absence of vegetation, and the 

 prevalence of reh. Bits of dhak jungle (Butea) scattered over this tract may be the 

 remains of what was once a forest. This growth everywhere in the N. W. P. appears 

 to replace true forest forms, once the conditions necessary for their existence are 

 altered. 



The change effected in the climate has undoubtedly been great, and everywhere 

 in the plains of the N. W. P. dried watercourses and rivulets, barren ravines, and saline 

 efflorescence, attest to the slow but certain progress of aridity and exhaustion. 



As regards the precise locality where the drawing of the rhinoceros hunt was found, 

 sal forests yet exist there in patches, and the occurrence of numerous characteristic 

 drawings of the Bison (B. ffaurus,) a forest loving animal, renders it nearly certain that 

 primaeval forest existed at the time. In the swamps engendered by these forests I 

 would suppose the rhinoceros depicted to have lived. Both R. sondaicus and R. suma- 

 trensis frequent what must be very similar localities at the foot of the Garo, Khassia 

 and Naf'-a hills where I was informed by the late Major 0. E.. Cock that he had seen 

 both species. 



The cover frequented by the rhinoceros seen by Baber on the banks of the Indus 

 would better be discussed by some one more familiar with the Province than I am, 

 but there is much probability that forests harbouring elephants existed at the period of 

 the invasion of Semiramis. 



