As no tiger had killed, a general shooting was undertaken. We passed by a local village after crossing the river.

We could observe closely the poor reed huts as well as the primitive house and field equipment of the Nepalese. Around the huts, they have cleared some of the land of the jungle  which the natives cultivate.Despite their poverty and the feverish climate, the natives don’t look as worn down as their Indian neighbors, the Hindus. Many of the locals work with cattle and even take cattle from India on their pastures. But the sight of the herds is truly awful as the individual animals seem to consist only out of skin and bones. Sickness and predators namely tigers cause countless victims, as in the Tarai area cows and bulls are running around in a half-wild state, so that one often meets a herd in the midst of the forest far away from a settlement. Timidly, they run away from the elephants.

The hunting master led us into very difficult terrain in which we had climb regularly over ravines, inclines and gorges. It was said to contain bears; even if we had come face-to-face with  Ursus labiatus, we could not have shot it as we had all hands full holding on to the hauda to prevent being thrown out. As the order of the line had completely vanished as the smaller elephants could not keep up with the larger ones in this „crooked world“ (bucklige Welt), I asked the nephew of the maharaja to guide us out of this  wilderness into less difficult terrain.

Our wish was granted but this went against the original plans of the hunting masters. That is way we ventured rather aimlessly around in search of game without finding a good jungle. But the area offered something to hunt namely hares which we killed in sizeable numbers for India.

Finally it was decided to breakfast — always a good call — after which we did a nice hunt alongside a stream as the hunting masters recovered their bearings. At the shore we found numerous small game and once even — apparently — a panther was confirmed as suddenly the cry „cheetah, cheetah“ rang out. Many people said to have positively seen the panther, as it had occurred in similar circumstances, but despite the quickly formed circle with the usual skill, there was no result.

Links

• Location: Dechta Boli, Nepal
• ANNO – on 15.03.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. The Emperor and the Empress will leave from Switzerland the next day, he returning to Vienna, she on her way to Genoa, with a potential stop in Lucerne.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is playing „Faust“, while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is performing  „Die Rantzau“.