TIGERLAND 



stretched out, stone dead, on the very spot where my 

 elephant had been when she charged. Quickly dis- 

 mounting, I examined the body and found one bullet 

 hole just below the throat, and another in the fleshy part 

 of the thigh, the first obviously the shot that had killed 

 her, and the second one of the two fired as she dashed past 

 behind me on her first appearance. 



Both these shots could only be regarded as unusually 

 lucky flukes, especially the first, which had probably saved 

 us an extremely unpleasant, not to say perilous, quarter 

 of an hour. As it was, the tigress must have completed 

 her spring, judging from the mahout's statement, as 

 corroborated by the claw wound. 



We now measured our prize, and found her to be nine 

 feet four inches from tip of nose to tip of tail a rare length 

 for a tigress. Being in the prime of life and condition, her 

 skin was an exceptionally fine one, and, when cured and 

 hung up in my bungalow, served to recall for many a year 

 after the pleasant and exciting incidents connected with 

 the slaying of " My First Tiger." 



