Another prudent precaution is to have the back of one’s shirt or coat slightly padded with cotton and quilted.  The heat prevents one wearing thick clothes, and there is no doubt that the action of the direct rays of the burning sun all down the back on the spinal cord, is very injurious, and may be a fruitful cause of sunstroke.  It is certainly productive of great lassitude and weariness.  I used to wear a thin quilted sort of shield made of cotton-drill, which fastened round the shoulders and waist.  It does not incommode one’s action in any particular, and is, I think, a great protection against the fierce rays of the sun.  Many prefer the puggree as a head-piece.  It is undeniably a fine thing when one is riding on horseback, as it fits close to the head, does not catch the wind during a smart trot or canter, and is therefore not easily shaken off.  For riding I think it preferable to all other headdresses.  A good thick puggree is a great protection to the back of the head and neck, the part of the body which of all others requires protection from the sun.  It feels rather heavy at first, but one gets used to it, and it does not shade the eyes and face.  These are the two gravest objections to it, but for comfort, softness, and protection to the head and neck, I do not think it can be surpassed.

After crossing the sand, we again entered some thin scrubby acacia jungle, with here and there a moist swampy nullah, with rank green patair jungle growing in the cool dank shade.  Here we disturbed a colony of pigs, but the four mahouts being Mahommedans I did not fire.  As we went along, one of my men called my attention to some footprints near a small lagoon.  On inspection we found they were rhinoceros tracks, evidently of old date.  These animals are often seen in this part of the country, but are more numerous farther north, in the great morung forest jungle.

A very noticeable feature in these jungles was the immense quantity of bleached ghastly skeletons of cattle.  This year had been a most disastrous one for cattle.  Enormous numbers had been swept off by disease, and in many villages bordering on the morung the herds had been well-nigh exterminated.  Little attention is paid to breeding.  In some districts, such as the Mooteeharree and Mudhobunnee division, fine cart-bullocks are bred, carefully handled and tended, and fetch high prices.  In Kurruchpore, beyond the Ganges in Bhaugulpore district, cattle of a small breed, hardy, active, staunch, and strong, are bred in great numbers, and are held in great estimation for agricultural requirements; but in these Koosee jungles the bulls are often ill-bred weedy brutes, and the cows being much in excess of a fair proportion of bulls, a deal of in-breeding takes place; unmatured young bulls roam about with the herd, and the result is a crowd of cattle that succumb to the first ailment, so that the land is littered with their bones.