Sir Samuel Mbttc JBafecr 



supplied. On one occasion, when tiger-shooting, the 

 tiger suddenly charged straight at the elephant on 

 which Baker was mounted. 



" The elephant," he says, " was startled by the un- 

 expected apparition, and I could not fire, as he swung 

 his mighty head on 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 the elephant 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. 



