THE TEAK KEGION". 231 



cantered towards my position. Wlieeling round, I de- 

 livered the right barrel of the Jacob in his left shoulder, 

 on receiving which he rolled over like a rabbit. At the 

 moment I fired my eye caught a glimpse of the other 

 tiger close by, in the direction I had first seen him ; so, 

 seeing the first disposed of, I again fronted, and, with a 

 steady aim, gave No. 2 the left barrel through the neck. 

 As luck would have it, the spine was broken, and he 

 dropped on the spot. All this occupied but a few 

 seconds, being as quick a right and left as ever I fired. 

 On turning my attention again to the first tiger, I was 

 just in time to see him reach the thick jungle some 

 twenty paces off, and, before I could seize another gun, 

 he had disappeared. I had time to perceive, however, 

 that his right hind leg was broken in the body ; the shell 

 must, therefore, as he was hit in the left shoulder, have 

 traversed his body from stem to stern ; and yet here 

 were none of the immediate paralysing efi'ects ascribed 

 to these shells at close quarters. On walking up to the 

 second " tiger," what was my disgust to find that it was 

 not a tiger after all, but only a huge striped hyaena I 

 had shot, having mistaken his disproportionately large 

 head in the imperfect light for that of the jungle king! 

 The shell had passed completely through his neck, but, 

 if it exploded at all, must have done so after passing 

 out. The other was a veritable tiger, however. We 

 followed him a little way by his footprints and blood, 

 but it was getting very dark, and prudence compelled 

 us to leave him till the morning. We failed, however, 

 to find him then, though we hunted about the whole 

 day; and it was not till some days after that a cow- 

 herd found his rotting remains beside a pool of water, 

 many miles away. 



