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    HUNTING IN THE HIMALAYA.*

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    Untitled Article

    would be understood to assert that there Is not widely diffused a mechanical-knowledge of the events recorded .- The children in National Schools and the graduates of Q : dford and Cambridg e are each exainined in Scripture History ; they are alike expected to recite tables of the Kings of Israel and Judah , and required to tell , at a moment's notice , by what a < Jts Ehud or Bathsheba were rendered famous ; geographically , too , they might-pass muster fairly ; vyet the amount of ignorance of all that constitutes the real ; Mstory—civil , literary , and religious—of the Jewish people is something almost past belief . The want of interest that such tt of

    a theme inspires is evident from the absence in our lieraure any trustworthy guides to the subject . Until the publication of the present dictionary , there was not a single work of reference that could be consulted with a fair * chance of success . Nearly every other subject of human inquiry has been furnished with hand-books and dictionaries long ago j Dr . Smith is , however , the first Englishman who has ever endeavoured to produce such a work for the intelligent student of the ancient history of Palestine . Others , indeed , whom we need not name , have published works under nearly similar titles ; but , on examination , they will be found to be rather collections of materials for the support of sectarian religionism than aids for the historical inquirer .

    Dr . William Smith is already favourably known as the editor of a series of classical dictionaries of the most elaborate kind . There is hardly a subject in lioman domestic life , or an obscure name in Greek literature which has not found ample not ice in its pages . A dictionary of the Bible , required a somewhat different mode of treatment to the works on which the editor had formerly been engaged . In the hands of most men it would either have been written in such a tone as to offend nearly all the religiousminded among its ' readers ; or it would have become a party work , valuable as a monument of the opinions of one section of English thought , but comparatively useless as a store-house of knowledge relative to the Jewish people . Both these errors the editor has avoided so Well that there is hardly an article in-the present

    volume where party spirit colours the narrative , and in the one or two instances where it seems to do so , the evil is in a great measure obviated by each author haying attached his name to his own contributions . The list of the Writers contains the namesof most of the . biblical critics of England and Americaj selected with the single object of bbta ^ ing the most thoroughly trustworthy information . The religious beliefs of the Writers never seem to have entered into the Editor ' s bead : all schools are represented ; from the narrowest Puseyisin to the most fearless-liberality . Puritan and Papist , Rationalist and Evangelical , here meet in peacei Those who have lost wealth and position for the sake of Mediaeval Christianity , and those who owe their present fame to their untiring labours in attacking the outworks of the same system , are all ranged in alphabetical array in the catalogue of contributors .

    The article which has the greatest attraction to us , and which , on the wholej we consider the most valuable , is the one on Jerusalem . No pains have been spared to make it as complete as possible . The maps and woodcuts by which it is illustrated have all evidently been executed with the greatest possible accuracy . As to the literary portion , we have said enough when we say that it is by James Furgussbn , ^^ F-R-A ^~ th * e ~ TtiaTr-o ^ all ~ crthers-Tnost competent to write upon such a subject . To all those who have ever wandered among the ruined cities of Palestine , who have encamped beneath the shadow of her date trees , and drunk of the mountain streams where the soldiers of Joshua may have refreshed themselves , this work will be valued

    for other than its literary and archaeological merits . To all such the history of the East , and of Judaea and Jerusalem especially , has attractions such as do not exist elsewhere . ^ Vhatever our religious creed , our oredulity , or want of faith , still to all of us the instinct of the soul points not to Rome , the capital of empire ; not to ihe republics of ancient Hellas , where mankind first learned to love liberty and art ; but to that land where alone the Creator has revealed himself to his creatures ; where only , from tho earnest historic times , mankind has worshipped the Divine Unity ; whence the voioe of inspiration has been granted and has issued forth to mould the human race . Wo Europeans , the children of yesterday , roamed wild savages in the forests of Scandinavia

    when the cities of the East were rejoicing in the blessings ot civilization . The lands that produced Jerusalem and Damascus , Nineveh and Ahtiooh—the pastures where Sheikh Abraham fed his flocks and where Jacob saw visions—the desert whore Moses legislated , and the mountain slopes where Joshua routed the rmies of the" Gentiles—are landmarks in the history , not of tho Jews only , bnt of the human race . Spots conseoratcd to religious feeling—oall it poetic instinct if you will—suoh as no pomp of material splendour , no relics even of the most glorious art , will ever efface from memory . Races have changed . The wild freedom-loving Teuton has become tho world ' s master . The islands of-the . Weat . jwliere _ ths .. servants oi , JRiexam , King . jrf Tyre ^ he

    master-builder of Solomon , bartered with painted savages for tm , are now far greater than was Tyre in all her glory . But tho East is still the same . Of her citios some have crumbled into " ruinous hoaps , " some shrunk into raero villages , and those that r » i i topniTi have fejt the ohanges of time and dynasty . Still , to the iT ^ J . ¦~ BS 3 Pean wandorer , they arc the samo . Ear othorwiso is it with y ^^| rpgfa ^^> tlinrn city . London and Paris stand on the remains of / fiiP v ^^ OT ^^ Wwns ; yet what connection have they with the far-off fTfj '* 'P ^ JnffliF ® 1 Iffir ° thinks of the Romans , when ho passes down tho I T ^^^ PJiKBp ^/^ f " villaH onco lined tho way on either side of him ? I ^^^ J ^^ JJ ^ Mfceotion with tho past is broken . Two or three sculprrfVcTS MMtt

    tured stones alone are left to tell that here , too , the world s conquerors once planted their eagles . With the cities of the East , and with Jerusalem pre-eminently , it is not ^ so . 1 hat which is most especially memorable in : their history « nds before purs has a beffinninff . The traveller sees around him the very objects , both of nature and of man ' works , that were existing when David ruled in Israel . The walls may still be traced that were encompassed by the chariots and horsemen of the King of Assyria—that so long resisted the concentrated power of Imperial -Rome : Ihe surrounding hills were the same as now : many of the buildings , even , were hoar with antiquity when the last of the Hebrew bards closed the book of prophecy . The Pool of Bethesda , the Mount of Olives , and the Street of Grief , bring before us a tune , a being , and a sacrifice , before which every other human memory Such is Palestine ; such is Jerusalem ; such is the mystic East . Quacumque ingredimur in aliquam historiam . vestigium ponimus .

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    npHE author of Hunting in the Himalaya is surprised at seeing-JL how much time and labour are expended by his countrymen on deer-stalking ' and bird-shooting in Scotland , and wonders they do not take advantage of the wonderful facilities at present existing for visiting the Himalaya , where they would be presented with such a variety of game on which to indulge their natural love of sport and adventure . He supposes that this apparent want of enterprise on the part of English sportsmen is owing to their ignorance of the above facilities ; and it is with a view to public enlightenment on this subject , and an earnest desire to afford sill who shall be induced to follow in the print of his own footsteps the extra Advantage of his personal experiences that he has compiled the present volume . After an introductory chapter , in which we are made acquainted with some of the principal features of the mountainous regions to which the author ' s labours are confined . different

    and which also contains a short catalogue of the specie * of animal by which this part of the world is inhabited , we come at once to a description of an elephant hunt , in the , valley of Dehra Dooh . The author defends himself and all sportsmen against Sir Emerson Tehnant ' s well knovpi opinion Tela . tive .-to the utility and humanity of * ' elephant catching . " The latter * in his work entitled " Hunter ' s Life in South Africa , " describes the wild elephant as harmless , and , of course , under that supposition , its capture , as a mere ^ na tter ^ f sport is air act of gratuit ous and wanton cruelty . Mr . Duiriop , however , most- emphatically asserts a _ . contrary theory , and he adduces numerous instances in which dentil has resulted from the Tintamed ferocity of this animal . He speaks of a solitary elephant , called the " Ouiiesh , '' fqnnerlv belonging to the Government Commissariat , which first killed its keeper , and then fled to the jungle , still retaining on its leg a bit of the chain by which it had been secured . During fifteen years , this monster is renorted to have caused the same number of deaths

    of trapping wild elephants—one by pitfalls , tlie otlTGi' -with—the assistance of their domesticated brethren . " These pits , which are dug in the earth , from fifteen to twenty feet deep , arc all ¦ screened from observation by a slight and yielding covering , formed ot grass , branches , &c , so that the animal may fall all the more readily , and as it were blindfolded , into the snare . But the sagacity oi this animal is such that , " though these pits are admirably concealed , it is not often that elephants fall into them ; the . y not . only try most carefully , when at all suspicious , the ground before them with their feet , but make incessant use of their trunks , in testing the ground ,

    or lifting off the pathway any branches or other impediments which might conceal a trap . " But this is not the only instance in which the instinct and sagacity of the wild elephant forces itself upon our notice . They have a peculiar faculty for divining the exact period of the year at which their different kinds of forage will be lit tor consumption . Speaking of a bed of reeds or tiger-grass , near the Song and Soovwa rivers , called " nul" and " nurkut" in Hindosttini . the author says ' .: — - " This the elephants ' have apparently declared , in their mental almanac , to reach the stage of maturity at which it is most agreeable to their palates about the 12 th or 13 th February ; . and to it , therefore , they come , year after year , at almost the suiiic date , hiding in tho Lewalik hills , just south of the spot , during tinday , and visiting the nul every night . " . with

    The author winds ' up his remarks upon elephant hunting a few general directions as to the best mode of firing at that turn mil . This information is all the more valuable , since it is only by iimim /? . at particular parts of tho slcull that tlie elephant ' s brnni w accessible ; and , in case tho shot should not prove fatal , the sportman ' s life is in danger from the retaliation of liis enrngod -antagonist We have then . o- short _ ac « unt _ of JihoJ 3 c . Utf « I . l ! 8 J'J ! : its habits , its ferocity , and tlie best mode of attacking it , us « l » o a description of the various sorts of game to be met with- m tju » Sewalik Hills , together with an interesting paragraph upon tin excellence of tho Doon fisheries . Pheasants and purtndges , ol nil colours and denominations , also abound in this region . Mv . . Dunlop says , " tho best plan for obtaining an acourato idcu ot tlio plumage of the different varieties , both male nhd female , is to

    along the foot of the hills . Upon another occasion , a poor lettercarrier was attacked and . crushed to death by a " rogue , elephant , as a certain tribe of them are designated , while engaged in the quiet exercise of his office . The author says : —" There are two methods

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    * Hunting in the Himalaya , with "notices of custom * and countries fi mi t » w elephant hmmtH of Dalirn J ) uon to tho Hunoliowr tmokH In otormtl «» ° «• , !> . It . II . W . Dunlop , Author of " Adventure wllli tho Khukuo UohkiiIuIi . Itlclmra ltentloy , ' '

    Untitled Article

    $ 7 ! 2 The SaturdayAnalyst and Leader ; [ July 21 , 1860 .

    Hunting In The Himalaya.*

    HUNTING IN THE HIMALAYA . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 21, 1860, page 672, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2357/page/8/