i8 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



close behind the animal, whilst the village so-called shikari 

 and another man walked just in front. We were on a pad, 

 my companion sitting up behind the mahout facing the 

 front and I behind facing left. Not the most enviable 

 position from which to beat out a tiger ! But we had no 

 howdah, nor had I yet ever been in one. 



We reached the tunnel, but no sign of the kill could we 

 see, and my chief absolutely refused to allow the shikari 

 to enter the jungle and rather dense grass which lined 

 either side of the railway line and clothed the top of the 

 tunnel. The elephant was taken into the grass and made 

 a bit of a cast to the right of the tunnel, but we found no 

 pugs nor any other trace of stripes, and then reluctantly 

 gave it up, arranging to be on the spot at daybreak next 

 morning in the hopes of being able to beat up the beast ; 

 but the hope as we knew was a very faint one. I was so 

 frightfully keen that I expect my chief arranged this mainly 

 for my benefit. 



Next morning the original villager led us to the scene of 

 the bloody deed. It turned out to be nearly a mile from 

 the tunnel mouth, and in the scrub and grass jungle on top 

 of the tunnel ! But the native's ideas of distance are 

 negligible. 



What we found of the remains of the men I prefer not to 

 dwell upon. It was to me a ghastly and gruesome sight. 

 It roused our blood, however, and we spent four or five 

 hours beating for the devil who had done the deed ; but, 

 although we found his pugs and followed them up, we saw 

 no trace of him. Nor was he heard of in those parts for 

 several months. I sat up for the brute in another part of 

 the forest at a later period, but did not see him. He was 

 far too cunning and I never heard that the reward offered 

 for him in our district was claimed, or rather, paid. It 

 was claimed often enough by native shikaris on flimsy pre- 

 texts which would not bear the searching light of the 

 enquiry to which they were subjected. 



But as I have said, we were not plagued at that time 

 with man-eaters. Nor was it surprising when game was so 

 plentiful in the forests, necessitating but slight trouble on 

 the part of the tigers to maintain a full stomach. And 

 when they got old and heavy and, therefore, lazy, they 

 could always fall back upon the cattle of the villagers, 

 large herds of which grazed in the outer forests in the 



