l6 M1DDLEMISS: PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF SUB-HIMALAYA, 



soon as the hot months commence, and long before such rivers as the 

 Kosi and Rajnganga become tinged with mud from the monsoon 

 which follows. 



A tropical country, possessed of all these advantages of forest and 

 flood, of secluded valleys and hidden gorges, can- 

 not but be rich in animal life, and especially in 

 the larger mammalia. The Sub-Himalayan zone is verily a paradise 

 for the sportsman. There is every style of country in miniature ; 

 abundant cover, afforded by the system of reserving the forests ; and 

 every other inducement that would tempt the largest and fiercest of 

 wild animals to make it their home. In addition, it is a sort of meet- 

 ing-ground for the fauna of the hills and the plains ; which, by its 

 variety of surface features, can accommodate both. It is of interest to 

 geologists and naturalists, as bearing on the distribution of animals 

 in time and space, to reflect that, during the ages when the Sub- 

 Himalayan rocks were deposited, there flourished a large and fierce 

 group of mammalia, whole families and genera of which are now 

 extinct ; and that this portion of the earth still affords refuge for the 

 few representative descendants of those mammalia, which exist at the 

 present day. 



A brief epitome of the more important and larger animals must 

 here suffice. The Asiatic Elephant {Euelephas indicus) is thoroughly 

 at home among the Siwalik hills, where food and seclusion are at his 

 command. As shooting this animal is forbidden, except in certain 

 cases, the reserved forests have become a sort of elephant preserve, 

 which is drawn upon every few years, when fresh supplies of tame 

 elephants are wanted by Government. They are caught by being 

 driven into deep sots (stream beds), having only one outlet. If they 

 offer resistance, they are reduced to a state of submission by special 

 fighting elephants, and then secured by ropes in the ordinary way. 

 Of the carnivora, the Tiger {Felts tigris) regularly inhabits the flatter 

 portions of the country, especially the duns and the deep sots which 

 run up into the hills from the duns. It is also very numerous just at 

 the foot of the Siwalik hills and downwards to the Terai. The Pan- 

 ther and Leopard (Felt's pardus) occupy the hillsides, and prey upon 

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