Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India: their haunts and habits from personal observations; with an account of the modes and capturing and taming elephants

Front matter

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fTf" f

EX LI BR 15

Contents

CHAPTEE I.

SKETCH OF AUTHOR'S HUNTING EXPERIENCES.

PAGE I Land in Madras — Appointment in Mysore — My First Tiger — Appointed to Superintend an Experiment for the Capture of "Wild Elephants in Mysore — Results — Similarly Appointed in Eastern Bengal — Tracts Visited — Capture Eighty-five Elephants — Return to Mysore — Furlough to England — Remarks. . . .1

Chapter I. Sketch Of Author's Hunting Experiences

I LAND IN MADRAS — APPOINTMENT IN MYSORE — MT FIRST TIGER — APPOINTED TO SUPERIN- TEND AN EXPERIMENT FOR THE CAPTURE OF WILD ELEPHANTS IN MYSORE — RESULTS — SIMILARLY APPOINTED IN EASTERN BENGAL — TRACTS VISITED — CAPTURE EIGHTY- FIVE ELEPHANTS — RETURN TO MYSORE — FURLOUGH TO ENGLAND — REMARKS.

I LANDED in Madras in 1864, and proceeded to a station in the Mysore country where I had friends. I was fresh from school and looked with delight upon the prospect of a coffee-planter's life, in which I had heen promised a start by a friend, himself a planter. But coffee was in one of the vicissitudes with which that enterprise seems so frequently to be struggling — at least my friend's estate was — and before I had completed a voyage round the Cape he had been eaten out by the " borer " insect, or his prospects had shared the blight at that time affecting his trees' leaves — I forget which. My hopes of a jungle-life seemed to be doomed ; my vision of wild elephants, tigers, and bison to be hopelessly dispelled ! However, in a month or two a friend who was engaged in prosecuting some surveys for Government took me with him, and in the next six months I learnt a little of the country and surve)ring, and a good deal about duck and antelope shooting. I then applied myself to the study of Canarese, the vernacular of Mysore, for a year, which I look back upon as perhaps the most judi-

A

2 J/5' FIRST TIGER.

ciously spent twelve months of my existence ; and at the end of that time I obtained a Government appointment as Assistant Channel Superintendent,

Twenty-eight miles from Mysore, the former capital and still the seat of the native Court, is the Commissariat station of Hoonsoor, my appointed headquarters. My work consisted in looking after about 150 miles of river-drawn irrigation channels, all of them works of antiquity. Whilst traversing the Hanagode jungles through which the major portion of these flowed, I had sufficient leisure to gratify my taste for sport ; in fact I had only to carry a rifle or gun with me on the channels to get frequent shots at spotted-deer, pig, and jungle-fowl, which small game quite contented me then. There was nothing large, except tigers ; but though I used to be in some pleasurable apprehension of meeting them, as their footmarks were numerous, I never saw any. At last a friend, the Commissariat officer at Hoonsoor, got up a beat with elephants and took me with him, and I had the proud satisfaction of shooting my first tiger ! Shall I ever forget how anxiously I watched Major M. as he rode an elephant up to the tiger, prostrate in a bush, to see if he was really defunct ? How earnestly I adjured him from my tree, " not to shoot at him if he was dead ; " and how he, naturally incensed at this advice from a griffin, stopped his elephant to inform me that he was " not such a fool as to shoot at a dead tiger ! "

In two years, at the end of 1868, 1 attained a fair position owing to the advancement of officers above me, and reached the top of the tree of our small department. The whole of the irrigation channels in the Mysore province, aggregating 716 miles, then came under my charge, and the city of Mysore became my headquarters. I had a large extent of country, including several fine jungles in addition to my old haunts, to travel over in the prosecution of my work. I had a sufficient salary to afford a good battery, and the money necessary for getting good sport ; and I spent most of my leave and all my cash upon it. In 1873 an opportunity was afforded me of changing what had hitherto been my favourite recreation only — sport — into the business of my life. I had before this time shot all the kinds of large game found in the Mysore country, and had become familiar with jungle matters. I had been especially interested in noting the habits of wild elephants ; and upon my repeated representations, aided by the support of an official of high standing, a thorough sportsman, and able to form an accurate opinion on my proposals, the Mysore Government was induced to undertake the capture of some of the herds which roamed, useless and destructive, through various parts of the province, and I was appointed to carry out the experiment.

I succeeded, as I shall hereafter relate, in capturing a large number of

APPOINTED TO SUPERINTEND E IE PIIA NT- CATCHING. 3

elephants, and in consequence was appointed to the temporary charge of the Bengal Elephant-Catching Establishment, in September 1875. I worked in Bengal for nine months, during which time I visited the Garrow and Chittagong hill tracts, wild and little-known regions. I returned to Mysore in June 187G, after capturing eighty-five elephants in Chittagong.

But the famine which has recently devastated the south of India had then begun, and the scarcity of rain rendered elephant-catching impossible for a time, as fodder could not be procured for the support of any elephants that might have been captured; so myself and hunting establishment were employed in apportioning the border forests into grazing blocks for the starving cattle that flocked thither for pasture. Few of their owners had ever seen jungle before, and were terrified by exaggerated tales of tigers, wild elephants, and evil spirits. Unless provision had been made by Government for their being accompanied by men accustomed to jungle-life, they would merely have crowded the borders of the forests, and never have reached the best grazing grounds. After organising arrangements for their convenience, by placing trackers and jungle-men in charge of different sections of the forests, I found it necessary to return to England (in April 1877) on fifteen months' furlough on medical certificate, after a continued residence of thirteen years in India.

The peculiar opportunities which have been afforded me during that period from following my natural inclinations, and by the nature of my duties, of encountering the wild animals of Southern India and Eastern Bengal, have induced me to believe that my experiences may be of some interest to the general public, and perhaps of some service to the cause of natural history. In presuming to relate them I am but dealing with matters which have constituted my daily occupation. All that I narrate is from personal observation; and whilst no one can be more alive than myself to the fact that, if the wielding of my pen is to be taken as a test of my ability with the tools of sport, it will lead to but a poor opinion of my accomplishments, I claim one merit for my jottings which I hope will cover their numerous failings — at least in the eyes of brother sportsmen — and that is, that they are all strictly true. Any one who has devoted himself to Indian field-sports for some years as I have done must have been singularly unfortunate if he has not sufficient exciting facts noted in his journal to fill a book without the necessity of resorting to fiction or exaggeration.

I have dealt at some length upon the habits when wild, the mode of capture and training, and the management and conduct in captivity, of the elephant. The popular interest felt in that animal is perhaps more general

4 REMARKS.

than that attaching to any other, whilst regarding none are there more fallacies and erroneous impressions. Few writers have been in a position to deal with the subject in all its branches. Many sportsmen have shot large numbers of elephants, but have given us little information about their nature, disposition, and habits — matters with which it was at once my duty as a public servant, and my delight as a sportsman, to acquaint myself.

In the chapters on the other wild animals with which I have dealt I have separated my observations on their habits, and recitals of adventures with them, as I believe that arrangement will be a convenient one for all readers, whether lovers of natural history or of mere tales of adventure. I have endeavoured to select incidents in hunting the various animals illustrative of their dispositions and habits ; and though in turning over the leaves of my journal the temptation to introduce more scenes of contest between rifle and wild beast has been considerable, I trust none will complain that my butcher's bill is too long !

I have given short accounts of the jungle -tribes with whom I have associated in pursuing their scarcely wilder fellow - inhabitants of the forests ; and as my recitals will be more intelligible when my readers have been introduced to the country in which most of the incidents chronicled have occurred, I shall venture to devote a short chapter to a sketch of the province of Mysore. The accompanying map indicates its position in the peninsula of India.

o c £ *

Haihyjfry*- mi m "" &S,""'

Chapter II. The Province Of Mysore

DESCRIPTION — CLIMATE — POPULATION — REVENUE — THE LATE MAHARAJAH — CHARACTER OF PEOPLE — CULTIVATION — RIVERS — CHIEF TOWNS— MYSORE BREED OF DRAUGHT- CATTLE — SEASONS .

THE Mysore country is an elevated, undulating plateau of 27,004 square miles, lying between 13° 6' and 15° 0' north latitude. Its length from north to south is 190 miles, and its width from east to west 230.

Mysore is bounded on the north by the Bombay Collectorate of Dharwar and the Madras Collectorate of Bellary ; on the east and south by other districts of the Madras Presidency ; and on the west by Coorg, a dependent province, and the Western Ghats. Its chief town, Bangalore, is situated in the same latitude as, and 200 miles due west of, Madras. Mysore is a native State in subsidiary alliance with the British Government.

The general level of the country is from 2500 to 3000 feet above the sea, the lowest point being 1800 feet, and it descends steeply on all sides into the low country. High mountains, some 2500 feet above the ordinary level of the plateau, bound it on the west : these are called the Western Ghats, and extend from the extreme south of India, through Travancore, Malabar, Mysore, and Bombay, to Kandeish, or about 950 miles, at a mean distance of some 5 0 miles from the coast. They break the force of the monsoon from the west ; and the deluges of rain common in the country between them and the coast are modified in Mysore into showers and temperate rains.

Bounding Mysore on the south are the Neilgherry Hills, attaining an elevation of 8700 feet. Ootacamund, the chief sanitarium of Southern India, is easily accessible from Mysore. Its elevation is 7300 feet.

In the south-east are the Billiga-Kungun hills, the highest point of

G STATISTICS.

which is about 5000 feet above sea-level. Wild elephants are very abundant throughout this range and the forests at its foot.

The country in the interior of the province is undulating and in many parts hilly. A peculiar feature in many localities are the granite hills, often sheer rock, sometimes consisting of huge masses piled on each other, and forming caves where panthers and bears are occasionally found. Solitary fortified hills, called droogs, are numerous : many of these are still crowned with the remains of old fortresses which were used in former days as strongholds by robber chieftains.

The border mountains of Mysore are generally well wooded, but some of the highest summits are clear of forest, being grass downs with woods in the hollows, where moisture favours their growth.

The climate of Mysore is temperate, the mean deduced from observations (in the shade) at Bangalore being 72°6'. The mean diurnal range is 15°6/, the greatest recorded being 32° in one day in February. The greatest extremes recorded are 53° and 95°, in February and May respectively of 1866. The average rainfall is about 40 inches, though in the western forest tracts and hills it is frequently from 80 to 100 inches.

The last census, taken in 1871, gives the population at 5,055,412, of which 4,839,421 are Hindoos, 208,991 Mussulmans, and about 7000 Europeans and half-castes.

The revenue in 1875 was £1,100,000; of this one-fourth is paid as subsidy to the British.

Mysore was acquired by the British in 1799, upon the death of Tippoo Sultan, at the siege of Seringapatam. The former dynasty was then restored by the British in the person of Krishna Raj Wadeyar, then five years of age, who was installed as Rajah. The Government during his minority was ably conducted by the Brahmin Dewan (or Prime Minister) Poornaya, under the control of the Political Eesident, Colonel Sir Barry Close. The troops were commanded by Colonel Arthur Wellesley (subsequently Duke of "Wellington).

His Highness's liberality and kindly disposition made him a universal favourite with both Europeans and natives. But he fell into the hands of injudicious advisers, and in 1830 the disturbed state of the country rendered necessary the intervention of the paramount Power. Since that period the territories of his Highness have been governed by a Commission, which is under the direct orders of the Government of India. Before his death in 1868 the Maharajah, in the absence of male heirs, adopted a successor who is to resume the government of the country when he attains the period of majority — that is, the age of eighteen years — which will be about 1880.

MYSORE DRAUGHT-CATTLE. 7

Under European tutelage he is receiving a more liberal education than was within the reach of the late Maharajah.

The Hindoo people of Mysore are peaceful, orderly, and good-natured, but lacking in enterprise. The Brahmins are intelligent and ambitious ; they have always filled most of the posts in Government offices. The Mussulmans have sunk into deep poverty, chiefly through their own laziness, since the overthrow of the Mussulman power in 1799. A few engage in mercantile and agricultural pursuits ; many are enlisted in the Mysore Horse and the Sepoy corps ; they also find employment as elephant and camel attendants, and horse-keepers. The domestic servants of Europeans in Mysore are all Madrassees, as the Canarese people have never taken to indoor service.

The country is well cultivated in many parts, the wisdom of former rulers having provided it with irrigation, both by channels drawn from the rivers passing through it, and from tanks or lakes formed by embankments thrown across the valleys. These ancient works are constructed upon such scientific principles that little can be done by European engineers to improve them. The lakes store the surplus rain-water for the use of the land further down the valley, and the cultivation thus artificially watered is called "wet" in India, in contradistinction to "dry," or that dependent on rainfall alone.

The chief rivers in Mysore are the Cauvery, Toongabhadra, Hemavutty, Cubbany, and Lutchmenteert ; the latter three are tributaries of the Cauvery, joining it within the Mysore province. Where it leaves the plateau for the low country of Madras the Cauvery forms fine falls of about 200 feet in height. The falls of Gairsoppa in the north of Mysore are not so widely celebrated as they deserve to be. They are on the Sharavati river, and a portion of them have a sheer overfall of 9 6 0 feet.

The chief towns in the Mysore province are Bangalore (3031 feet above sea-level) and Mysore (2525 feet). Seringapatam, the celebrated fortress, is situated on an island in the Cauvery, nine miles from Mysore. Erom Bangalore to Mysore the distance is 88 miles. Bangalore is connected by rail with Madras, the distance being 216 miles; of this line 48 \ miles only lie in Mysore, and there is no other railway in the province. There is no water carriage, as the rivers are rocky and swift. The roads, however, are excellent, and the Mysore breed of bullocks is celebrated for speed and endurance. Travelling is usually done by bullock-coach ; for long distances from four to five miles an hour, with bullocks posted every five miles, is a fair pace. Bullock-carts do all the heavy trade. A pah' of bullocks will draw a load of 15 cwt., exclusive of the cart, twenty miles a- night for many consecutive nights. Post-bullocks cost 3 annas (4|d.), and s

SEASONS.

a baggage-cart and bullocks lh anna, per mile. Pack-bullocks penetrate the remoter tracts with merchandise. It was in a great measure owing to the superiority of the Mysore bullocks that Hyder Ali and Tippoo Sultan maintained a lengthened war with the British and Maharattas at the end of the last century. The best breed of bullocks is sedulously maintained at the Government Public Cattle Establishment at Hoonsoor, and extensive pastures are allotted for the grazing of the herds throughout the province. A certain number of first-class bulls are at times distributed to large villages for the free use of the agriculturists' herds.

The seasons in Mysore are three — the cold, hot, and rainy — and are distributed as below : —

Cold Season,

Hot Season,

Rainy Season,

{December.

January.

February.

! March.

April.

May.

( June. /

July.

/ August. /

\ September. \ I October.

V November. \

Mornings and evenings cold and bracing ; days bright and sunny.

Hot, and occasionally sultry, but the nights usually tempered by sea-breezes from the west. The hot weather in Mysore is by no means unbearable. Showers and heavy thunderstorms occur at intervals during April and May ; these prelude the south-west monsoon.

The south-west monsoon commences in June ; heavy rains and showery and overcast weather prevail till September. In October the north-east monsoon commences, and thunderstorms and heavy downpours are common. In November the weather is often bright and cold, but rain falls now and again.

From May to December are the chief cultivation and harvest months, though some crops, as sugar-cane, &c, which are irrigated, are grown the whole year round.

Chapter III. The Mysore Jungles

BEST SEASONS FOR SPORT — MOVEMENTS OF GAME — JUNGLE-FIRES — FORESTRY — NATURAL CLASSES OF JUNGLE — DISTRIBUTION OF WILD ANIMALS — LIST OF ANIMALS FOUND IN MYSORE — REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY — RUINED VILLAGES IN THE FORESTS — ANCIENT IRRIGATION WORKS — A DESOLATED VALLEY.

IN the jungles the young grass commences to spring with the first showers in April, and by July has attained the height of a man. This is the case chiefly in hill tracts ; in the low-country jungles it is more backward, as there is less rain and it is grazed down by cattle. By "grass" in Indian jungles is meant the broad-bladed and long-leaved lemon-grass and other coarse kinds, which grow in large tufts ; also reeds in swampy ground, and small ground-creepers. This season is the time par excellence for stalking and shooting large game. The animals are intent on the new supply of fodder ; occasional rain makes tracking easy ; and after May the sky is usually obscured by clouds and driving mist in the hills, and considerable exertion may be undergone without discomfort.

From July to January the grass is so high and thick that game cannot be got at in it, and many places where good sport is obtainable earlier then become impenetrable. Driven out by the wet and discomfort, and tormented by myriads of flies, many animals leave the high and close cover at this time for the lighter shelter and choicer grazing to be had amongst the young and tender grass on the outskirts ; but they retreat readily to the grass jungles if disturbed.

By January the grass has all seeded and become dry, and it is then fired by the jungle -people. The hitherto impenetrable jungles are now reduced to clear forests of trees, interspersed with separate evergreen thickets. Moving about in such forests is rendered easy, but warm, work, the heat rising from the blackened earth under a tropical sun being very

10 MOVEMENTS OF GAME.

trying where the forest is not dense. The jungle-people burn the grass to admit of their gathering certain fruits and jungle-products, especially the gall-nut, used in tanning. This burning insures a supply of sweet grass as soon as showers fall on the fertilising ash.

During the months when the jungles are clear, the wanderings of the game are necessarily curtailed, not only by want of cover, but also of food and water. The herds of elephants, bison, and deer collect in moist and deep valleys where the grass is green, and fires do not enter. The difficulty of finding these secluded places however, is great, as they are in such heavy and moist jungles that the very few wild people's dwellings that do exist are seldom near them, and unless the sportsman is well equipped for a march into difficult country, away from supplies of all kinds, they are inaccessible. To any one ignorant of the extent of the wild animals' hot-weather retreats it seems almost magical, after experiencing the difficulty of finding them during that season, to observe how they reappear on all sides with the first rains.

It is a magnificent sight to see the jungles of a hill-range burning. Sometimes immense tracts are on fire at once, and at night give forth a lurid blaze which lights up the country for miles round. If the fire is near, the roaring noise is truly appalling, and impresses one with a sense of the dread power of the element. Huge billows of thick smoke, in which lighted grass and leaves are whirled forward, roll heavily and slowly along, whilst a sound as of incessant discharges of small-arms is caused by the bamboos and grass stalks exploding. The noise lulls and swells with every alternation in the breeze and in proportion to the thickness of the undergrowth. Long after the main conflagration has passed, isolated bamboo-clumps and dried trees are seen burning fiercely like pillars of flame, till they fall over with a sullen crash, and are quenched. Many trees smoulder for months. I knew one of enormous size, the roots of which, some of the girth of a bullock, or greater, burnt for three and a half years, the fire smouldering slowly underground in the roots long alter the parent stem had fallen.

During the clay countless buzzards and fly-catchers hover over the smoke, preying on the bewildered insects which are escaping from it. The destruction of noxious vermin by the fires must be considerable ; but many animals and reptiles, as the land-tortoise and snakes, whose powers of speed do not enable them to escape by those means, survive by burying themselves in holes or burrows amongst rocks.

I have never seen jungle-fires advance at any great rate, except in very dry and long grass, unshaded by trees, and under the influence of a strong

JUNGLE-FIRES. 11

wind. Here burning leaves and hot ashes are carried far ahead of the main fire, and a fresh blaze starts up at once where they fall. I do not think jungle-fires ever travel lour miles in an hour. The devouring element licks np all before it in some places with wonderful rapidity, but it seldom proceeds far without a check. Wild animals retreat before conflagrations ; but many, as for instance herds of elephants encumbered with young, could not always escape if the fires travelled at any great rate. I have never known any animals, except a few young sambur, too young to walk far, to be caught in the fire ; but jungle-people have been burnt on occasions. This has always occurred through their not heeding the danger, and staying to search for some near asylum, instead of at once starting for a known place of safety. Three men of a village near my camp in the Billiga-rungun hills, who were cutting bamboos, were burnt in this way, through not liking to leave their work further than the shelter of a ravine near, which proved insufficient to protect them from the wave of flame and smoke that passed over them.

Elephants, bison, &c, do not retreat straight before a fire, but to one side or the other. The fires seldom form a long front, so this outflanking movement readily succeeds. At the first distant crackle, or smell of smoke, wild animals at once retire. Fires are much less dangerous than is supposed if anything like prompt means are taken to effect a retreat. The jungle-people secure their houses by cutting some of the grass round, and firing it early in the season, before it is very dry. This stops the onward rush of the larger fires later on. Fires burn much more fiercely during the day than at night, as there is usually more wind, and everything is dry and brittle ; whilst at night the heavy dews have a marked effect on the progress of the burning through making the grass damp ahead. The conflagrations are only fierce and general for one month, usually March ; they begin in January.

A good deal is said in connection with forestry in India regarding the destructiveness of the annual fires to young trees, and attempts are constantly made, but rarely succeed, to exclude fires from reserved Government forests. It is, perhaps, doubtful whether they are so destructive as is believed, and whether the young plants of teak and other trees would flourish well if constantly choked and overshaded by undergrowth. At any rate there are splendid forests where, though fires have raged annually from time immemorial, the timber is as close as the ground can support it. The grass is not so high or thick under shade as in open ground, and as artificial teak nurseries are usually made in land from which the timber has been removed, and where, in consequence, grass grows apace, the fires are

12 FORESTS AND WILD ANIMALS.

there more severe on the young plants than in their natural forests. There are always numerous young plants of timber-trees in every forest which can never live, as they grow more thickly than the ground can support when mature. The fittest survive ; and though fires may scorch and shrivel up their leaves, I have not observed that the saplings which take root soon after the burning of one season are killed by the fires of the next, though many of those which are but a few months old when the fires commence are destroyed. I have been told by experienced jungle-men that timber-plants are burnt down for five or six consecutive years, the roots meanwhile thickening and strengthening underground, until they give birth to a plant sufficiently strong to withstand the effects of the momentary wave of flame.

The Mysore jungles may be divided into three classes. First, virgin forests of heavy timber, usually found in the hill-ranges along the borders of the province. They are naturally finest in such places as are inaccessible for the removal of timber ; for from the more accessible parts the timber-supply of the country is drawn. The virgin forests are only inhabited by a few wild jungle-people. Secondly, the lighter belt of forest, usually about ten miles in width, intervening between the virgin forests and civilisation. From this tract the villagers procure the small timber and bamboos they require for household purposes. They also graze their cattle in it, seldom entering the heavier forest except during the hot weather, when pasturage elsewhere is very scarce. A few villages occur in this tract, but they are rather stations for cattle-grazing than for cultivation, nor are they often of a permanent nature. Thirdly, scrub-jungle of low and thorny bushes, which occurs at intervals throughout the open cultivated country in the sterile tracts, on the deserted sites of villages, &c. From this small firewood and bushes for fencing are obtained, and in it the cattle and flocks of the villagers in the interior are grazed.

In the heavy forests, elephants, bison, and sambur are the chief game. These animals come at certain seasons into the lighter belt. But the legitimate occupants of the latter are the tiger, panther, bear, spotted-deer, and wild hog. The wild clog ranges through both heavy and light forests, and is terribly destructive to the deer tribe ; he is never found in open country. In the scrub-jungle, particularly in those tracts near detached hills and low ranges, panthers, leopards, bears, ravine deer, wolves, and sometimes antelope, are found. Antelope and wolves, however, chiefly confine themselves to large tracts of open uncultivated country, on the borders of which the ryots' crops furnish the former with superior grazing, and his flocks are often pounced upon by the latter.

The following game-list comprises all the animals found in Mysore,

GAME FOUND IN MYSORE.

except monkeys, squirrels, mimgooses, ant-eaters, lemurs, flying-foxes, rats, and other small animals not objects of sport : —

LIST OF MYSORE GAME.

English.

Of Naturalists.*

In Canarese.

Remarks.

Elephant ....

Elephas indicus

Very numerous in border forests.

Bison or Gaur . .

Gavseus gaurus . .

Karti, Kard-yem-

Abundant through-

may, Kard-kor-

out the ranges

na, Doddoo.

frequented by elephants.

Felis tigris . . .

Hooli

Plentiful in suitable

localities.

Panther ....

Felis pardus . . .

Less common than the leopard. A black variety is sparingly found in Mysore.

Leopard ....