64 HISTORY OF THE TIGER. 



greener bunches of jungle, the usual abode of beasts of prey 

 during the day-time, and the few huts scattered here and 

 there, which could hardly be called villages, seemed like 

 islands in the desert waste around us. We stopped near 

 two or three of these green tufts, which generally sur- 

 rounded a lodgement of water, or little ponds in the midst 

 of the sand. 



" The way in which these ferocious animals are traced 

 out is very curious, and, if related in this country, would 

 scarcely be credited. A number of unarmed half-naked 

 villagers, go prying from side to side of the bush, just as a 

 boy would look after a stray sheep, or peep after a bird's 

 nest. Where the jungles were too thick for them to see 

 through, the elephants, putting their trunks down into the 

 bush, forced their way through, tearing up everything by 

 the roots before them. About four miles from our tents we 

 were all surrounding a bush, which might be some fifty 

 yards in circumference, (all includes William Fraser, alone 

 upon his great elephant, Mr. Barton and myself, upon ano- 

 ther equally large, Mr. Wilder upon another, and eight 

 other elephants ; horsemen at a distance, and footmen peep- 

 ing into the bushes). Our different elephants were each 

 endeavoring to force his way through, when a great ele- 

 phant, without a houdah on his back, called ' Muckna,' a fine 

 and much esteemed elephant, (a male without large teeth,) 

 put up, from near the centre of the b.ush, a royal tiger. In 

 an instant Fraser called out, 'Now Lady H., be calm, be 

 steady, and take a good aim, here he is.' I confess, at the 

 moment of thus, suddenly coming upon our ferocious victim, 

 " my heart beat very high, and, for a second, I wished myself 

 far enough off; but curiosity, and the eagerness of the chase, 

 put fear out of my head in a minute ; the tiger made a 

 charge at the Muckna, and then ran back into the jungle. 

 Mr. Wilder then put his elephant in, and drove him out at 

 the opposite side. He charged over the plain away from us, 



