80 A COLLECTING TRIP 
well as crocodiles, with it. It was surprising how 
soon they got accustomed to the light, and went on 
feeding in the lit-up area. We could have shot lots 
of them, but when we did, and left them till morning 
to get, they were eaten up by jackals and hyenas, 
since we had trouble shooting in the light and gener- 
ally wounded the deer so that they went some distance 
before they died. 
I killed eight erceodiles from six to twelve feet 
long. I also saw a tiger one day, walking aeross a 
perfectly open, dry meadow with short grass and lit- 
tle scattered clumps of bushes. He strode solemnly 
away with his tail in the air, for all the world like a 
big cat. My only weapon at the time was a butterfly 
net. I hunted about for tigers a good deal, with my 
double-barrelied rifle, but never chanced upon one, 
though we saw very many fresh tracks in the mud. 
We could have killed a good many deer and wild boar, 
but let them go for fear of disturbing the tigers, 
which we hoped to get later on. 
One day we went to a place where snipe were 
said to be plentiful, and we started out, a young 
Englishman of the Indian Survey and myself, in two 
different directions. We each had a man with us 
carrying our rifles. The other chap shot a wild boar 
and broke a hind leg, but lost it since it got into a 
dense thicket of thorn bushes. Not a great while 
afterwards I hunted past this same bunch of brush, 
when to my surprise out came the boar, making re- 
markable time on three legs, straight for me. He was 
so near that I did not have time to change guns but 
caught him in the forehead with the full charge of 
bird shot at about ten feet. He slid almost to me, 
