TIGERLAND 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 



SPORTSMEN who have done most of their shooting on foot 

 whether it has been lions or elephants in Africa or the 

 grizzly and buffalo in the backwoods of America are apt 

 to run away with the idea that shooting tigers, or other 

 dangerous game, from a howdah, perched high up on an 

 elephant, is comparatively tame sport, because of the 

 generally supposed security of the position occupied by 

 the hunter ! True, when compared with the pursuit of 

 dangerous game on foot, howdah-shooting may, at first 

 sight, appear to be a less hazardous form of sport. Never- 

 theless, there are few sportsmen, with any lengthened 

 experience of shooting from elephants, who cannot recall 

 instances in which, despite their fancied security, they 

 have been placed in situations of the utmost danger, re- 

 quiring all the courage and coolness they possess to extricate 

 themselves. 



Persons unacquainted with the habits and savage 

 instincts of the animals which frequent the Indian jungles, 

 can form no idea of the ferocity and vindictive disposition 

 of such animals as the tiger, leopard, rhinoceros, buffalo, 

 or bear, nor can they imagine what such brutes are capable 

 of, when wounded and brought to bay. For, any one of 

 these animals, when it finds itself hemmed in, will think 

 nothing of charging an elephant, or even a line of elephants, 

 over and over again and, if not stopped by a well-directed 

 shot, will make its charge good. 



This, in the case of a tiger or leopard may, and often 

 does, mean its getting on to an elephant's head or stern 

 and clinging there, with teeth and claws, to the utter 



B 1 



