42 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



where the climate is cold ; but in other parts of 

 India, Assam and Burma, in the hot season, the 

 tiger dearly loves a moist locality. In vast hot 

 plains, if there be any bheels about, and you are in 

 search of tigers, make for them, for if there is one 

 anywhere in the vicinity, there he will be found. So 

 in the full assurance that before long w r e should make 

 the acquaintance of the royal family, we continued to 

 advance, C. on the left and I on the right, with eight 

 elephants closely jammed between us. Our mahouts 

 were always very keen when out with us, for we 

 divided all Government rewards between them. We 

 had no shikaries, as none exist in Assam. A Cacharie 

 mahout, who was afterwards for some years in my 

 employment, a plucky fellow, knew every inch of 

 the dooars and he was besides without exception 

 the very best tracker I ever saw. The elephants 

 moved along briskly enough till we got to the edge 

 of the bheel ; they then began to be unsteady, to 

 give tongue, in other words to make dismal noises, 

 and as there was no solid ground, they flickled the 

 tips of their trunks against their own legs, and in 

 other ways gave us plainly to understand that they 

 advanced under compulsion. We had not fired a 

 shot and had entered about fifteen yards into the 

 marsh, when, as if by a preconcerted arrangement, 

 several tigers, as far as we could judge, rushed 

 roaring in our direction. We could see the water 

 splash, but the tigers were themselves hidden by the 

 vegetation. We opened fire a little ahead of the 

 moving grass, but I don't think we touched one of 

 them. The uproar now was more than our elephants 

 could stand even packed as they were, so they broke 



