Year: 1876

London Times says: You need not wan
der far from Moondia Ghaut in order to
learn how Indian swamps abound in Or
astrological treasures. Five or six miles
to the eastward lies the great Bumunee
Tai, also called the Korewar Jheel, u broad
sheet Of stagnant water encircled with i'm
penetrable palisades of elephant grass and
treacherous, unapproachable quicksands
Tho open water Is concealed by seething,
tapping, particolored mass of ducks. The
anatide of two continents are before you.
You are not, however, likely to visit Kore-
war in order to shoot such petty game as
wild ducks, for round its banks are long,
damp hollows and secluded nullahs. There,
amid matted grass and waving, feathery
reeds, the tigress rears her cubs, her lar
der always well supplied, for thoughtless
cattle freely stray from off the cindered
plain to seek cool retreat from the mid
day sun. Nor, in the rainy season, is
there any lack Of food. Two or three
kinds Of deer peculiar to the swamps exist
in vast numbers, aud other varieties in
habit the drier tree jungles which stretch
as far as the eye can reach to the north
and east. Wild pigs, too, rush headlong
out Of every patch of weeds.


In the rains wild elephants wallow in
that sea Of grass; the half-dry mud is even
now puddled and pitted by the recent foot
steps of solitary "rogue," though the
ever-watehful herd month ago retreated
before the incursions of mankind to the
rayines at the foot of the purple mountains.


A stray wild buffalo or rhinoceros is
sometimes, but rarely seen, as far to the
west as this. Their principal haunts are
in the wilds of Assam, the shifting ''churs'
of the Brahmapootra, or the steamy
marshes to the north Of Rungpoor and
Maldah. There was, indeed, q herd of
buffaloes some years ago in Chandul Is
lands, within rifle shot Of Moondia Ghaut,
but an adventurous officer braved the jun
gle fever in the very middle of the deadly
season and succeeded, il it be considered
a success, in utterly exterminating them
with his own gun. The last rhinoceros
killed in this noighborhood fell trophy
to the sporting energy of well.known
civil servant, who tracked the trifouate
footmarks Of his rare quarry INCREASINGLY
for two days and nights.


1t is impossible to enjoy the grand sport
of pig sticking in these plains, though wild
boars abound. IF you should by chance
escape the manifold dangers of the ground
during short gallop, long before the pig
is short of breath and inclined to charge
within reach of your spear, you are sure
to bc brought up by an impenetrable
thicket Of matted copsewood or some black
swamp with yawning quicksands. These
quicksands form quite feature in the
Terai. Many of the larger swamps are so
full of them that it is impossible to use
elephants for beating at all. For instance,
in the Choka, which skirts the northern
edge of forest few miles south of
Moondia Ghaut, or in the Mala, which
juts out into the semi-cultivated country
east Of Phillibeen, you can only beat
patches here and there along the edge and
take your chance Of an outlying tiger.
The elephants know their danger and will
not venture where these "fasands" are
found. To these natural strongholds and
to the network of steep ravines at the foot
of the mountains the tigers owe their safe.
ty. If the whole country side could be
beaten like pheasant cover in Norfolk all
wild beasts would before long be extirpa-
ted. 1t is rarely that one is SO far from
water when but shooting in the Terai, for
there is not much use in looking for tigers
until they are driven into circumscribed
haunts by the forest fires, and these haunts
are almost always near water, partly be.
cause the grass being fresh and green
there, does not readily burn, and SO affords
good covert, and partly because the tigers
themselves delight in the coolness and
moisture. They drink great deal, and
invariably finish meal by visit to the
nearest pool. If in the carly part of the
season you find them far from swamp or
stream, it is either because there arc at
that time small ponds and puddles as
yet undried up, which escape observation,
or, as the Taroos assert because the tigers
are satisfied with the dew which thcy lick
off as they travel through the grass, aud
which serves TO refresh aud cool their skin.
The profusion Of dew in these forests tracts
is wonderful. The tiger, unlike most of
the felide, takes readily to the water, and
is very strong swimmer. I have seen
one, struck by lucky shot in the middle
Of rapid part Of the Sarda, turn round
and, badly wounded as he was, swim
straight back across the stream to charge
up the overhanging bank at the nearest
elephant Even small cubs follow their
mother across the strongest current. The
whole body is submerged, and there is
nothing to show their whereabouts except
the nose and fore part Of the head, and
perhaps lowering crow which caws in
cessantly to call the attention of other
animals to their deadly en- emy. Often
would the course Of tiger sinking steal
thily away before the beatsrs remain un-
discovered were il not for tn, calling Of
crows, the chattering of monkeys, or the