The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-02-18
determination Of Beasts In India.

A belt of Jungle filled with feroclous
animals lay for years around the sulti-
waited Ian !. The official records fire.
ouently speak of the mailbag being car
ried off by tigers, and the custom OF the
mail runners carrying jangling rings
or bells to scare away the wild beasts
survived to our own day. Lord Corn
wallis, in 1889, had to s.nction n grant
of public money to free the military
road from the depredations OF these
animals. a., ..",
The ravages of the wild elephants
were on larger scale. and their exter-
mination formed one of the most i'm
portant duties of the British officers
after the country passed under our rule.
Tigers, leopards and wolves slew their
thousands OF men and their hundreds OF
thousands of cattle. But the herd Of
wild elephants was absolutely resistless,
lifting off roofs, pushing down walls
trampling a village under foot as if it
were city OF sand which child had
built upon the shore. In two parishes
alone, during the last few years OF the
native administration, fifty-six han1lets
with their surrounding lands "had all
been destroyed and gone to jungle.
caused by the depredations OF wild ele-
plants. Another official return states
that forty market villages throughout
Birbhum district had been deserted
from the same cause.
Large reductions had to be made in
the land tax, and the East India COM
pany borrowed tame elephants from the
native viceroy's stud in order to catch
the wild ones. II had ocular proof on
my Journey" writes an English officer
in i7sl. Of "their rayages. The poor
.timid native ties his cot in a tree, to
which he retires when the elephants ap-
proach, and silently views the destruc-
ton of his cottage and the whole profits
of his labor" Zone night" writes an
English surveyor in 1910, although I
had guard the men of the village close
to my tent retired 70 the trees, and.the
women hid themselves among the cat
tie, leaving their huts prey to the ele-
plants. who knew very well where to
look for grain. Two nights before some
of them had unroofed . hut in the vii.
lage. and had eaten up all the grain
which a poor family possessed" 8 Most
fortunately for the population Of tie
|country." wrote the greatest elephant
hunter OF the last century, " they de-
light in the sequestered range of the
mountains; if they preferred the plains,
whole Kingdoms would BE- laid waste"
All this is now changed One of the
complaints of the modern Englishman
in India is that he can so seldom get a
shot at tiger. Wolves are dying out
in many provinces; he3ancient Indian,
lion has disappeared. !Thewild elephant
is so rare that lie is specially protected
by the government, and in most parts
Of India he can only be caught by Off
cial license under official superv ision.
Many districts have petitioned for a
close season, so as to preserve the edible
game still remaining. The only animal
that has defied the energy Of the British
official is the 81 AXE. One may, however,
Judge of the loss of life by wild beasts
in the last century from the deaths
caused by this, their chief survivor at
the present day. The ascertained num-
Der of persons who died from snake.
bite in 1875 was 1900, out of L total of
81 .39l killed by snakes and all other
wild animals. The de1ths from wild
beasts in the last century were probably
not under l50, ,000a year.-CornhtM Mag
azi1le.