CHAPTER VII. 



THE TIGER. 



While wandering about during the months of April 

 and May, in the teak forests of the Betiil district, I 

 devoted a day now and then to the sport of tiger- 

 shooting ; and it was the laudable custom of the forest 

 officers to spare, if possible every year, a few weeks 

 during the height of the hot season, for the purpose of 

 making an impression on the numerous tigers which at 

 that time rendered working in the forests and carrying 

 timber so dreaded by the natives, and consequently 

 costly to Government. 



Although there is much in the sport of tiger- 

 hunting that renders it inferior as a mere exercise, or as 

 an effort of skill, to some other pursuits of these regions 

 (for many a man has killed his forty or fifty tigers who 

 has never succeeded in bagging, by fair stalking, a single 

 bull bison or a stag sambar), yet there is a stirring of 

 the blood in attacking an animal before whom every 

 other beast of the forest quails, and an unarmed man is 

 helpless as the mouse under the paw of the cat — a 

 creature at the same time matchless in beauty of form 

 and colour, and in terrible power of offensive armature 

 — which draws men to its continued pursuit after that 



