THE TIGER. ao7 



of tigers whose tracks they had seen. The tigers were 

 all the time within half a mile of their tents, and before 

 ten o'clock that day I had them both padded. Duriiif 

 a whole month I believe they only succeeded in getting 

 one tiger, and that by potting it from a tree at night. 



I spent nearly a week of this time in the destruction 

 of a famous man-eater, which had completely closed 

 several roads, and was estimated to have devoured over 

 a hundred human beings. One of these roads was the 

 main outlet from the Betiil teak forests towards the 

 railway then under construction in the Narbada valley ; 

 and the work of the sleeper-contractors was completely 

 at a standstill owing to the ravages of this brute. He 

 occupied regularly a large triangle of country between 

 the rivers Mo ran and Ganjal ; occasionally making a 

 tour of destruction much further to the east and west ; 

 and striking terror into a breadth of not less than thirty 

 to forty miles. It was therefore supposed that the 

 devastation was caused by more than one animal ; and 

 we thought we had disposed of one of these early in 

 April, when we killed a very cunning old tiger of evil 

 repute after several days' severe hunting. But I am 

 now certain that the brute I destroyed subsequently 

 was the real malefactor even there, as killing again 

 commenced after we had left, and all loss to human life 

 did not cease till the day I finally disposed of him. 



He had not been heard of for a week or two when 

 I came into his country, and pitched my camp in 

 a splendid mango grove near the large village of 

 Lokartalae, on the Moran river. Here I was again laid 

 up through over-using my sprained tendon ; but a 

 better place in which to pass the long hot days of 

 forced inactivity could not have been found. The bare 

 brown country outside was entirely shut out by the long 



