REMINISCENCES OF JUNGLYPUR 239 



homewards, leaving her to another day, mistress of the 

 situation. 



On my next visit, when I approached the spot from a 

 different point and examined it with great care, I left a 

 buffalo calf as bait. Finding the tigress had left the 

 immediate neighbourhood, it was interesting to go over 

 the scene of the previous day's excitement, and it was 

 now seen that, when so suddenly stopped, I had arrived 

 within about twenty-five yards of the family tree, from 

 which the tigress had charged out for about ten yards. 

 It is probably fortunate that instinct warned me not to 

 fire on that occasion. As it was, the tigress gained her 

 point, and was content with having covered the retirement 

 of her cubs. As is usual in such very sudden encounters, I 

 carried away only a fleeting glimpse of a tawny stretched- 

 out form, and a memory of a peculiarly dark-red flank. 



The experience of another occasion, on which almost 

 the same tactics had been pursued by another "family" 

 tigress, leads me to believe that it was unlikely that the 

 brute would have followed me up, or made good her 

 charge. Had she done so, I should have been forced to 

 turn and shoot her or try to do so and it is difficult to 

 say what would have then ensued. My orderlies, who 

 were also armed, retired straight across the river-bed, and 

 from their position could have aided me by their fire, had 

 the beast come on ; but as a most trustworthy man of this 

 class once very nearly shot me when following up a 

 wounded tiger, it is possible that I should have had more 

 to fear from this direction than from the wild beast. 



It remains to note that the four Korkus, though of 

 course they deny it, came on the tigress after we left 

 them, and were driven off just as I was. The thoughtful 

 look on my orderly's face was due to the roaring which 

 she had then indulged in ; only it was too distant and 

 indistinct, he says, to distinguish at the time, and so he 

 had said nothing about it ! 



