306 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA 



we always had several Government elephants allowed 

 for the carriage of baggage and riding purposes, and, 

 as I always kept one of my own besides, I could generally 

 muster enough to drive effectively any tiger ground in 

 Central India. But I rarely took out more than one 

 elephant besides my own when shooting alone, finding 

 that quiet hunting was far more successful than the 

 bustle of many elephants and the rabble of men that 

 usually accompany a tiger hunt. 



In the end of April and May of 1862, I bagged six 

 tigers and one panther in the Betul jungles, wounding 

 two more tigers which escaped. I was unable regularly 

 to devote myself to tiger-shooting, having much forest 

 work to do, and my shooting was also much interfered 

 with by accidental circumstances. A sprained tendon 

 laid me up for fifteen days of the best weather (the 

 hottest), and there was so much cholera about that 

 many of the best places had to remain unvisited. 

 Another party were also shooting in the same district ; 

 and, though they arrived after me in the field, contrary 

 to the well-understood rule in such circumstances, pro- 

 ceeded ahead and disturbed the whole country by 

 indiscriminate firing at deer and peafowl. It is scarcely 

 necessary to say that when after tigers nothing else 

 should be fired at. The Lalla came out strong under 

 these unfavourable circumstances, working ahead and 

 securing by his plausible tongue a monopoly of informa- 

 tion, in which he was well seconded by the conduct of 

 our rivals in harassing the people in the matter of 

 provisions, and thrashing them all round if a tiger was 

 not found for them when they arrived. On one occasion 

 I reached their ground just as their last camel was 

 moving off to a new camp. They had stayed here 

 a week trying in vain to extort help in finding a couple 



