vi THE TIGER 121 



a leopard bolted, and immediately rolled over like its comrade ; 

 but as I had to wait until it had cleared the line of elephants 

 before I fired, it was about 35 yards distant, and although it fell 

 to the shot, it partially recovered, and limped slowly forward with 

 one broken leg, being terribly wounded in other places. It only 

 went about 40 paces, and then lay down to die. One of the 

 mahouts dismounted from his elephant, and struck it with an axe 

 upon the head. This leopard was immediately despatched to 

 camp, and we proceeded to beat fresh ground, as no tiger had 

 been here, but evidently the two leopards had killed the bullock 

 on the preceding night, and nothing more remained. 



Rosamond had stood very steadily, but she was terribly rough 

 to ride, and the howdah swung about like a boat in a choppy sea. 



A couple of hours were passed in marching through every 

 place that seemed likely to invite a tiger, but we moved nothing 

 except a great number of wild pigs ; a few of these I shot for the 

 Garo natives who accompanied us. At length we observed in the 

 distance the waving, green, feathery appearance of tamarisk, and 

 as the sun was intensely hot, we considered that a tiger would 

 assuredly select such cool shade in preference to the glaring yellow 

 of withered grass. At all times during the hot season a dense 

 bed of young tamarisk is a certain find for a tiger, should such an 

 animal exist in the neighbourhood. The density of the foliage 

 keeps the ground cool, as the sun's rays never penetrate. The 

 tiger, being a nocturnal animal, dislikes extreme heat, therefore it 

 invariably seeks the densest shade, and is especially fond during 

 the hottest weather of lying upon ground that has previously been 

 wet, and is still slightly damp ; it is in such places that the 

 tamarisk grows most luxuriantly. 



We were now marching through a long strip of this character 

 which had at one time formed a channel ; on either side the 

 tamarisk strip was enormously high and dense grass. Suddenly 

 an elephant sounded the kettle-drum note ; this was quickly 

 followed by several others, and a rush in the tamarisk frightened 

 the line, as several animals had evidently broken back. We could 

 see nothing but the waving of the bush as the creatures dashed 

 madly past. These were no doubt large pigs, but I felt certain 

 from the general demeanour of the elephants that some more 

 important game was not far distant. 



The advance continued slowly and steadily. Presently I saw 

 the tamarisk's feathery tops moving gently about 15 paces 

 ahead of the line ; the elephants again trumpeted and evinced 

 great excitement ; this continued at intervals until we at length 



