60 Lloyd's natural history. 



vegetation, scarce a day passed without one or more Cows 

 falling victims. The western side of the flat had long been 

 abandoned as a grazing-ground, for the coal-mine hill was not 

 only covered with thick second growth but honeycombed with 

 limestone caves and coal-galleries, in which the marauders 

 established their quarters ; and so many at one time occupied 

 these refuges that the coal-carriers had to go for their require- 

 ments in a body, while, when coal was needed for the mess or 

 officers' bungalows, a guard had to be sent with the coolies. 

 Not that the animals were aggressive in the open, but in the 

 dark recesses of the coal-tunnels, they were apt to resent in- 

 trusion, being run into a cul de sac. In addition to the cover 

 named, there were several spots within the station, such as rifts 

 in the sandstone and under slabs, where the brutes could skulk 

 the whole day long, issuing forth in the gloaming to intercept 

 the cattle wending their way home for the night. A Tiger had, 

 indeed, every advantage in Cherra ; he fought shy of the traps 

 erected for his special behoof, and, as no trees can be induced 

 to grow on this storm-swept, rock-strewn heath, and machans 

 would be too conspicuous unless you could manage a potshot 

 from the houses, it was difficult to bag one. In the dead of 

 the night people took the yelling of saises from the well-secured 

 stables, as matters of course; and though the roofs of all 

 houses were pitched low on account of the wind, the poaching 

 Tigers were instinctively chary of exposing themselves against 

 the skyline on the ridges ; while, owing to the almost incessant 

 rain, clear moonlight nights were the exception ; and though 

 few houses were without a trophy in the shape of a hearthrug 

 or two from the hide of the beasts, nearly the whole of these 

 had either been trapped or shot by sheer luck from the bed- 

 room windows or glass-enclosed verandas. 



" Many tales have been told of these chance shots, and, 

 though well authenticated, would, to those who had never 



