The Rhinoceros in JBhotan. 171 



coverts at nightfall, they issue into the surrounding savannahs, 

 to crop the herbage, and have frequently been known to oust 

 the herds of semi-tame buffaloes from their pastures, to the 

 no small alarm of the half- wild herdsmen. 



When provoked, the rage of the Indian rhinoceros is 

 almost beyond conception; it charges blindly with great 

 violence, and combining as it does enormous weight with an 

 almost bullet-proof hide, its onset is much dreaded by even 

 the staunchest in the line of elephants engaged in beating, and 

 as often as not the majority turn tail and bolt in fine style. 

 Many a good elephant will stand repeated charges from a 

 furious tiger with unconcern, but proves itself to be an arrant 

 coward when opposed to an Indian rhinoceros. 



This animal must not be confounded with other species* of 

 the same family, also called Indian rhinoceroses, which fre- 

 quent the forests of Burmah and the Malayan peninsula, but 

 which in size or strength are far inferior to it. 



Bhotan, one of the localities in which it is found, is a large 

 independent state on the north-east frontier of Bengal, most of 

 it a terra incognita to Europeans, owing to the strictly exclu- 

 sive Indo-Chinese policy exercised by its rulers. 



The author was for some months stationed at the little out 

 of the way village of Julpigorie, an outpost on this frontier, 

 and situated on the banks of the river Teesta, which, after 

 leaving the Sikkim Himalaya, forms the boundary between 

 the British district of E-ungpore, and the country of the 

 Bhotanese. 



By gentle means, i. e., occasional requests, invariably 

 accompanied by sundry bottles of rum or other spirit, the 

 Soubah or head man of the district immediately opposite the 

 station was frequently wheedled into granting permission to 

 a few officers of the native regiment stationed there to cross 

 the frontier into his territory for a day's shooting ; but as 

 the leave thus obtained expired at nightfall, it being contrary 

 to the laws of the land for an Englishman to pass the night in 

 their domain, the distance one could penetrate into the interior 

 was necessarily limited to twenty or thirty miles. Within this 

 radius, however, during the hot weather, when water was scarce, 

 plenty of game was to be found, and the officers of the ■ — th 

 Bengal Native Infantry were not slow to avail themselves of 

 these advantages. 



Three of us started one fine morning in May, the hottest 

 month in these parts, with eight elephants as beaters, making, 

 with those that carried us, eleven in all. We had to proceed 

 a few miles up the river Teesta before it could be forded, for 



* Jih. Sondaicus (S. Muller) of the Indo-Chinese region, and Rh. Sumatramts 

 (F. Cur.) of Burmah. 



