232 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



this was assented to, and my friend and myself proceeded to 

 decide how we should station ourselves, in order to command 

 as much as possible of the ravine. Having settled this, 

 we tossed for positions, and to me fell the nearest one, the 

 other man commanding a part of the ravine and the path. 

 My position was an ideal one, provided a tiger broke my 

 way. A narrow offshoot nullah ran down between steep 

 sal-covered hills, which dropped abruptly into the ravine 

 on either side. The offshoot nullah formed the chief, and, 

 in fact, only easy passage into the hills from the ravine. I 

 had only to command it, and this I did. Instead, however, 

 of placing my elephant in the ravine itself, I elected to take 

 up a position a few yards up the offshoot nullah. By this 

 means I not only blocked it, but commanded a wider range 

 of the ravine itself, and had a larger outlook over the tangle 

 of tall grass which here separated the ravine from the wide 

 river-bed. 



" So far as I could see, the matter resolved itself into this : 

 If a tiger was in the big sal forest, one or other of the rifles 

 with the beaters might get a chance at and bag him. They 

 were both good shots. If he was lying up for the day in 

 the sissu copses near the water, as was more likely, we stood 

 the best chance of seeing him, as he would probably leave 

 before the beating elephants got up to him. 



" The beat began, and indistinct sounds and noises came 

 to us very faintly, too faint to be able to distinguish any- 

 thing. I was on a fine staunch tusker, not unlike our friend 

 Jung Bahadur over there. He was an old campaigner at 

 his business, and had certainly been in at the death of over 

 one hundred tigers. A magnificent beast he was, with his 

 forehead painted in fantastic white designs, and his great 

 tusks cut down to half their length and tipped with massive, 

 engraved silver knobs. He had been lent to me by a Raja 

 friend of mine, and a rare good sportsman himself. Many a 

 jolly day had we spent together ; for as you know there 

 are no finer gentlemen nor greater sportsmen than some of 

 the old Indian families of Northern India can show, 



" Well, the great elephant stood like a rock. He and his 

 mahout below me were two living statues, and only by 

 their eyes could you have known that they were alive. My 

 orderly, just as keen, was sitting in the seat behind me, 

 also motionless. 



" What thrilling minutes those are spent in the howdah 



