THE TIGER. 151 



confess, at the moment of thus suddenly coming up- 

 on our ferocious victim, my heart beat very high, 

 and, for a second, I wished myself far enough off ; 

 hut curiosity, and the eagerness of the chace, put 

 fear out of my head in a minute ; the tiger made a 

 charge at the Muckna, and then ran back into the 

 jungle. Mr Wilder then put his elephant in, and 

 drove him out at the opposite side. He charged 

 over the plain away from us, and Wilder fired two 

 balls at him, but knew not whether they took effect. 

 The bush in which he was found, was one on the 

 west bank of one of those little half dry ponds of 

 which I have spoken. Mr Barton and I conjectur- 

 ing that, as there was no other thick cover near, he 

 would probably soon return, took our stand in the 

 centre of the open space ; in a minute the tiger ran 

 into the bushes on the east side ; I saw him quite 

 plain ; we immediately put our elephant into the 

 bushes, and poked about, till the horsemen, who were 

 reconnoitring round the outside of the whole jungle, 

 saw him slink under the bushes to the north side ; 

 hither we followed him, and from thence traced him 

 by his growling, back to the outer part of the eastern 

 bushes. Here he started out just before the trunk 

 of our elephant, with a tremendous growl or grunt, 

 and made a charge at another elephant farther out 

 on the plain, retreating again immediately under 

 cover. Fraser fired at him, but we suppose without 

 effect ; and he called to us for our elephant to pur- 

 sue him into his cover. 



