CHAPTER VII 



MY FIRST TIGER 



By C. W. G. Morris 



I SAILED for India in February 1890 from Aus- 

 tralia, to join my brother on his coffee estate, after 

 having spent close upon five years in the latter 

 country, where I had learned to shoot the rabbit 

 and the native bear and to moon the " possum." 



It was a proud youth that stepped on board at 

 Melbourne, as my colleagues had presented me 

 with a -450 Winchester repeater which the gun- 

 maker assured me would shoot elephant. I was 

 yet to live and learn, but I little realized what a 

 trusty weapon it would prove, and that with it I 

 was to bag my first " Bengal." 



As, with the exception of six months in 1895, 

 the whole of my time was spent on and within a 

 few miles of my brother's coffee estate, I will 

 first describe the country that I know and like 

 so well. The description of it is, to me, the 

 more interesting in that there were three totally 

 different types of shooting ground lying at my 

 feet, any one of which could be negotiated, and a 

 morning's stalk for game prosecuted, by leaving 

 my bungalow before sunrise and bending my 

 steps as fancy chose. 



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