TIGERLAND 



in all, some of them from teeth and others from claws. 

 Most of them were on the right arm, which the tiger had 

 apparently gripped hard, possibly with the intention of 

 carrying him off. There was one very serious claw wound 

 on the right eyebrow, just missing the eye itself. The old 

 man, though in great pain, kept his senses, and begged hard 

 that I would leave him and kill the tiger, for, according to 

 his superstition, if the tiger lived, he must die. 



The terrible scene I had just witnessed had, as may be 

 imagined, driven all thoughts of any further sport for that 

 day out of my mind, but as the injured man begged so 

 hard that the tiger should be killed, and as it was abso- 

 lutely necessary for his recovery that he should have 

 nothing on his mind to worry him and probably bring 

 on fever, I made him as comfortable as I could with 

 the cushions out of the trap, and telling him to cheer 

 up, as I would soon be back with the tiger dead, I took 

 the two elephants, and beating down the ravine in case 

 he should be lying up there, I made for the original covert. 

 The ravine, however, proved a blank, but no sooner 

 had I posted myself in the position I had at first occupied 

 and put the beater elephant in than out came the tiger, 

 charging straight at my elephant. I fired both barrels, 

 which turned him, and he made off limping to my left, 

 and took up his position in a very dense bit of covert 

 about four hundred yards off. I followed him up at once, 

 and posted myself in front of this covert, putting the beater 

 in at the far end ; but she had hardly entered when the 

 tiger charged and drove her out. This was repeated 

 several times, so, fearing that he might injure the elephant 

 or the people on her, I called out to the orderly not to go 

 in again, as I was coming round myself, which I did, and 

 leaving the beater outside to watch an outlet, I went in, 

 and had just reached a small patch of comparatively open 

 ground when the tiger, crashing through the covert at 

 the far end, came charging down. I fired as he was about 

 ten yards off, and fortunately made a splendid shot through 

 the left shoulder. 



The tremendous pace he was going caused him to turn 

 a complete somersault, and there he lay, as I thought, 

 stone dead at the elephant's feet, and I had actually 

 50 



