148 THE TIGER. 



sitting singing under a bush ; when, just as the for- 

 mer began to move before us, up sprang the very 

 tiger to whom our visit was intended, and cantered 

 off across a bare plain, dotted with small patches of 

 bush-jungle'. He took to the open country in a style 

 which would have more become a fox than a tiger, 

 who is expected by his pursuers to fight and not to 

 run ; and as he was flushed on the flank of the line, 

 only one bullet was fired at him ere he cleared the 

 thick grass- He was unhurt, and we pursued him 

 at full speed. Twice he threw us out by stopping 

 short in small stripes of jungle, and then heading 

 back after we had passed ; and he had given us a 

 very fast trot of about two miles, when Colonel Ar- 

 nold, who led the field, at last reached him by a ca- 

 pital shot, his elephant being in full career. As 

 soon as he felt himself wounded, the tiger crept into 

 a close thicket of trees and bushes, and crouched. 

 The two leading sportsmen overran the spot where 

 he lay ; and as I came up, I saw him, through an 

 aperture, rising to attempt a charge. My mahout 

 fiad just before, in the heat of the chase, dropped his 

 nnkors or goad, which I had refused to allow him 

 to recover ; arid the elephant, being notoriously sa- 

 vage, and farther irritated by the goading he had 

 undergone, became consequently unmanageable ; he 

 appeared to see the tiger as soon as myself, and I 

 had only time to fire one shot, when he suddenly 

 rushed with the greatest fury into the thicket, and 

 falling upon his knees, nailed the tiger with his tusks 





