THE MAIIADEO HILLS. 123 



hard Lit, and a little blood was found also on tlic track 

 of the bull. We left a few of the best trackers to follow 

 up their trail with the next beat, and went round to 

 take up our places about a mile further down, and close 

 to my camp at Korighat. The same process was repeated 

 here, and this time with much shoutiner and hammerinfi: 

 of drums, as a tiger was usually somewhere in this part 

 of the valley, and his tracks had been seen in the 

 morning. I did not o-et a shot on this occasion. One 

 of the Gond Thakurs shot another sambar ; and my 

 wounded stag was found and killed with their axes by 

 the Gonds. The wounded bull was in the beat, and 

 broke near one of the Thdkiir's retainers, who was too 

 astonished to fire. The rest of the bison, or another 

 herd, broke through the side of the beat, and plunged 

 down a very steep and rocky descent, which the people 

 said they had never attempted but once before, when 

 one of them had broken a leg. Certainly I should not 

 have thought that any animal so large as a bison could 

 go down that place and live. 



Nothing had been seen of the tiger, and had J. 

 known him as well as I afterwards did, I would not 

 have been surprised. I knew that tiger intimately for 

 many months after this, and yet I never once saw him. 

 He was a very large animal indeed, but entirely a jungle 

 tiger, that is, preying solely on wild animals, and 

 keeping during the day to the most inaccessible ravines 

 and thickets. He frequented the bison ground round 

 Dhupgarh, and hung on the trac^es of the herds, ap- 

 parently with an eye to the young beeves. I never 

 came across evidence of his killing any of them, though 

 I once saw a place on the plateau where the whole night 

 long he had evidently baited an unfortunate cow with a 



