4O Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



one day will probably turn tail the next, and a 

 powerful tiger is capable of pulling down a large 

 elephant. When your mount gets really frightened, 

 it becomes ungovernable, and is as likely to tumble 

 into a pitfall, or to go over the steep side of a nullah 

 or precipice, or what is far worse and far more frequent, 

 if a forest be anywhere near, to run amuck through 

 it, when your howdah will be smashed to pieces, 

 you and your weapons tossed about, and if you are 

 not killed, well, you are lucky ! These leviathans, 

 so sagacious at times, when in a panic are really 

 idiotic, and rush for the very place they should avoid ! 

 I have killed more tigers off elephants than in any 

 other way ; but then for twenty-one years I had a 

 number of elephants at my command, and the right 

 of travelling over districts extending over 400 miles 

 in length and some 200 in breadth, in which were 

 extensive plains covered with grass of from three or 

 four to twenty feet high, and swarming with game. 

 Departmental elephants I took care should also be 

 good for shikar, as I had the purchasing of them, not 

 unfrequently adding Ks.500 to their price out of my 

 own purse in addition to the Es.2000 allowed by 

 Government, that I might obtain really good beasts. 

 The same animals I used incessantly for years and 

 years, and never lost one. With good feeding, careful 

 handling, and never overworking, when I made them 

 over to my successor, they were in prime condition 

 and as good of their kind as could be obtained 

 in India. I regret to say, however, that, within 

 eighteen months not one out of six I left behind 

 me was alive. Besides the Departmental elephants, 

 I had one or two of my own, and the right of 



