44 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



tigers tried the same tricks, but with less success this 

 time. One charged home (we found afterwards that it 

 was the one I had fired at) and bit an elephant in 

 the leg, near the foot, but C. who was the nearest, 

 neatly bowled it over ; the others, finding our phalanx 

 unbreakable, wheeled off to the right and left, and 

 took refuge in a nasty boggy part of the bheel, into 

 which the elephants could not penetrate. Fortunately 

 C. had some rockets and other fireworks with 

 him, and after discharging a few infernal machines, 

 we started the game afresh. They did not attempt 

 to leave the marsh, as the country on our right 

 side was open, and on the other our elephants had 

 trodden down the grass, so that there was no cover 

 for them to hide in if out of the quagmire. C. now 

 went to one side of the bheel and I to the other, 

 where I was on pretty firm ground. Everywhere 

 we beat about, but could not see a sign of a tiger, 

 and there ought to have been one, if not two. 

 Getting out of the swamp I halted close to a 

 bush, to watch C. I saw him raise his gun and 

 fire, over the side of his howdah, and the next 

 moment a tiger sprang clean off the ground, and 

 seized hold of the lower bar of it with both teeth 

 and claws. There was a crash, the elephant fell on 

 to its side, sending C. and the mahout flying, and 

 then there was the devil's own hallabaloo where the 

 mass of flesh was struggling. I was glad to see 

 the bipeds pick themselves up as I started for the 

 scene of the accident. On moving off, a sound 

 made me turn round, and from the very bush by 

 which I had been standing for five minutes or more, 

 out rushed a tiger. I fired in such a hurry, that I 



