eS4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
Landon for the following graphic description of the day’s sport. “ The Rhino 
was shot after the first ring at which Lord Cromer secured a fine leopard as 
well as the largest tiger that had yet been shot ; the party divided as the 
beaters had reported two finds three or four miles away — some animal, probably 
another tiger, cornered in a dense bit of jungle, and a rhino in an open 
plantation. ]\Ir. M. A. Metcalfe, Capt. Poynder and Mr. Percival Landon 
went after the Rhino on elephants. By this time the sun was getting low. 
They made their way across more or less open country for about two 
miles and then entered the plantation. This was irregular in character, 
large woods of free grooving young sal alternating with treeless stretches 
of coarse shoulder-high grass indicating swampy soil, the whole being sur- 
rounded by a ring of thick and sometimes impenetrable undergrowth. The light 
was fading, tending to become yellow, a fact which only enhanced the unusual 
beauty of the surroundings. The party moved forward in silence broken only 
by the steady crash of what light undergrowth there was under the sal trees, 
or the tear and the squish of the high marsh grass. Several times, where the 
mud was exceptionally deep, they came upon signs of recent wallowings, but of 
rhinoceros they saw nothing though they spent over an hour in carefully quar- 
tering the plantation in response to the noise and whistles of the beaters on foot. 
They were on the point of giving up and returning to the rest of the jjarty when 
a soft but insistent whistle some distance to the right turned them back for a 
last chance. Mr. Landon was on the right hand elephant with a Nepalese 
officer and slightly in advance of Mr. Metcalfe and Capt. Poynder, when he 
suddenly came in sight of a huge rhino. He was standing sidewa 3 's motionless 
among sal trees well lighted for a shot. He stood about 6 feet high, and as 
rouehly paced out afterwards, was 9 ' 10" in length. In the low evening sun he 
locked as big as a locomotive. Mr. Landon fired twice, the first bullet hitting 
i t nearly opposite the centre of the spine, though whether the bullet did much 
work through the plate at that angle one cannot say. It did not seem to have 
any effect. With the second shot he hit it clean through the brain and the rhino 
sunk down in his track, without a movement, stone dead. The distance was 
just 90 j'ards and everybody came up to find the beaters already closed in and 
celebrating the occasion, with the amazing rites that alwaj's accompany the kill- 
ing of a Rhinoceros in Nepal. Everything that could hold blood was requisition- 
ed and the thick blood flo'wdng from the nostrils was collected with the utmost 
care. This was not a concession to the spirit of the monster, as in the rite of 
the dabbling of a tiger’s whiskers in his own blood. A Rhinoceros’s blood is 
apparently unrivalled as a viaticum for the d 3 dng, ensuring for the soul both a 
peaeeful departure and a happy rebirth on the other side. There are indeed 
many superstitions about a dead rhinoceros, but it is worth noting that its 
power for ensuring peace for the departed soul is retained by the mere empty 
shell — it is hard to call it skin — of the beast for years after its o\ra decease. The 
scene was a strange one and Capt. Pojmder aptly re-called the prehistoric as- 
sociation of ‘Tarzan of the Apes’ as half a dozen elephants closed in from no- 
where and ranged about the inconceivable scene of blood ritual which was 
carried a step further by the decapitation, amid fountains of blood, of the beast’s 
head. There was no time for witnessing the ‘ gralloching ’ of the carcase, ano- 
ther messy and obscene ceremony of great importance. The head was mea- 
sured from the top of the snout to the fold of the hide over the jaw bone and 
found to be a shade over 30 J inches straight. The horn was of no great height 
perhaps 8 inches but of massive construction. The colour was of an unusually 
light grey and the only mark on the head was that of the • 350 bullet three or 
foiK inches in front of the root of the ear.” 
In the afternoon news was brought to the Camp that a tiger had been ringed 
about six miles out ; the following party therefore went out after him : — 
H. R. H. The Prince of Wales, Col. O’Connor, Captain Dudley North, the 
Hon’ble Piers Legh, Captain Ogilvy and Captain Villiers. 
