vii THE TIGER 147 



The elephant was startled by the unexpected apparition, and I 

 could not fire, as he swung his mighty head upon one side, but 

 almost immediately he received the tigress upon his long tusks, 

 and with a swing to the right he sent her flying into the deep 

 nullah from which she had just emerged. 



Although the trees and shrubs were utterly devoid of leaves, 

 there was unfortunately a large and dense evergreen bush exactly 

 opposite, called karoonda ; the tigress sprang up the bank, and 

 disappeared behind this opaque screen before we had time to fire. 



The mahout, who was a splendid fellow, perceived this in an 

 instant, and driving his elephant a few paces forward, he turned 

 his head to the right, giving me a beautiful clear sight of the 

 tigress, bounding at full speed about 80 paces distant along the 

 clean surface of parched herbage, up a slight incline. 



I heard the crack of Berry's rifle close to my ear, but no effect 

 was produced. The tigress was going directly away from us, and 

 Moolah Bux stood as firm as a rock, without the least vibration. 

 As I touched the trigger, the tigress performed a most perfect 

 somersault, and lay extended on the bare soil with her head 

 turned towards us, and her tail stretched in a straight line exactly 

 in the opposite direction. A great cheer from our men, who had 

 witnessed the flying shot from their position on the knoll, was 

 highly satisfactory. 



We now turned back, and at length discovered a spot where 

 the elephant could descend and cross the deep nullah. We then 

 measured the distance 82 yards, as nearly as we could step it. 

 My '577 solid bullet of pure lead had struck the tigress in the 

 back of the neck ; it had reduced to pulp several of the vertebrae, 

 and entering the brain, it had divided itself into two portions by 

 cutting its substance upon the hard bones of the broken skull, 

 which was literally smashed to pieces. 



I found a sharp-pointed jagged piece of lead, representing about 

 one-third of the bullet, protruding through the right eye-ball ; the 

 remaining two-thirds I discovered in the bones of the face by the 

 back teeth, where it was fixed in a misshapen but compact mass 

 among splinters of broken jaw. 



Berry's bullet had also struck the tigress, but precisely in the 

 same place, close to the root of the tail, where he had wounded 

 the tiger a short time before. Upon arrival at the camp we 

 skinned the animal, and took special pains to prove the effect of 

 the unfortunate hollow bullet. This was conclusive, and a serious 

 warning. 



The penetration was only an inch in depth. We washed the 



