284 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



learners, but the remains of a monkey are seldom or 

 never seen. Indeed, these sagacious Simians rarely 

 venture to come down to the ground when young tigers 

 are about, though this sign is not always to be relied on 

 as denoting the absence of tigers. I thought so for 

 a long time, till one day in the Betiil country, after 

 hunting long in the heat of a May day for a couple of 

 tigers whose marks were plentiful all about, we came up 

 to a small pool of water at the head of a ravine, and 

 saw the last chance of finding them vanish, as I thought, 

 when a troop of monkeys were found quietly sitting on 

 the rocks and drinking at the water. I was carelessly 

 descending to look for prints, with my riHe reversed 

 over my shoulder, and another step or two would have 

 brought me to the bottom of the ravine, when the 

 monkeys scurried wdth a shriek up the bank, and the 

 head and shoulders of a large tiger appeared from behind 

 a boulder, and stared at me across the short interval. I 

 was meditating whether to fire or retreat, when almost 

 from below my feet the other tiger bounded out with a 

 terrific roar, and they both made off down the ravine. 

 I was too much astonished to obtain a steady shot, and 

 I was by that time too well acquainted with tiger 

 shooting to risk an uncertain one, so they escaped for 

 the time. I quickly regained my elephant, which was 

 standing above, and followed them up. It was ex- 

 ceedingly hot, and we had not gone more than a couple 

 of hundred yards when I saw one of the tigers crouched 

 under a bush on the bank of the ravine. I got a steady 

 shot from the howdah, and fired a three-ounce shell 

 at his broad forehead at about thirty yards. No result. 

 It was most curious, and I paused to look ; but never a 

 motion of the tiger acknowledged the shot. I then 



