OR CUTTACK. 183 



Lakh, Tesser or wild silk, wax, honey, and Dhuna or Indian pitch, are reck- 

 oned the most valuable articles of forest produce or Bankar, and are pro- 

 curable in great quantities on nearly every hill estate. The Cocoons of the wild 

 silk, are much larger than those of the real Worm, and are found generally 

 attached to the leaves of a tree called the Asin (Pentaptera tomentosa.) 



The woods which skirt the western frontier of Cuttack, as well as the fo- 

 rests of the interior, are filled with wild animalsf such as Tygers, Leopards, 

 Panthers, Hyenas, Bears, Buffaloes, Deer, Antelopes, Hogs, the wild Dog 

 called Balia orSata Rohini, the Ghoranga an animal resembling the Nilgao, 

 and the wild Ox denominated here the Gayal, a ferocious beast of immense 

 size with a noble pair of horns, which has been well described in the 8th vo- 

 lume of the Asiatic Researches. Wild Elephants infested the jungles of Mo- 

 herbenj and did great injury to the surrounding country, until a year or two 

 back, when the Raja after having failed in every other attempt, hit upon the 

 following method of getting rid of them. By the advice of a scientific byra- 

 gi or religious mendicant, he caused a quantity of some mineral poison' 

 (Mohri) to be mixed up in balls of rice such as are usually givert to tame 

 Elephants, which were strewed about in the places chiefly haunted by 

 the wild animals. The bait took effect ; a great number of the Elephants 

 were destroyed by the poison; it is said that upwards of eighty dead car- 

 cases were found, the rest decamped in alarm v and have since 1 understand 

 made their appearance in the jungles of another quarter. From the incon- 

 siderable size of the herds which frequented Moherbenj, it seems highly 

 probable that the Elephant is not indigenous to the province, and it is said 

 that the breed had its origin in the escape of some of the tame animals from. ; 

 their keepers in former ages. 



1 am too ignorant of the subject to attempt to speak of the Ornithology 

 of the Cuttack province. Of all the feathered tribe that I have seen in the 

 district, I have been most struck with the Dhanesa or Indian Buceros, which 

 is found in large flocks in Khurda, and is there called the Kuehila-kluu or 

 Kuchila- eater from the circumstance of its delighting to feed on the frnit 



