TIGERLAND 



To me this expedition had more than ordinary interest 

 from a sporting point of view, as, shortly before starting 

 on it, I had, after considerable thought and many doubts 

 and misgivings, made what I considered a very important 

 change in my " battery," for, led away by the glowing 

 descriptions and extremely neat and handy appearance 

 of the weapon, I had disposed of my " trusty and well- 

 beloved " double-barrelled -500 Express, and purchased 

 a '303 L.M. magazine carbine, with a supply of cartridges 

 loaded with the much- spoken- of and highly recommended 

 Jeffery bullet. My companion, who was an old and very 

 experienced big-game sportsman, was much amused when 

 I produced what he was pleased to call my " toy -rifle," and 

 asked me whether I really and seriously contemplated 

 facing a tiger with this pop-gun, and when I answered him 

 in the affirmative, could see that he considered it a highly 

 dangerous experiment. However, as I had a pair of 

 ordinary double-barrelled 12-bore ball guns as well in my 

 howdah, he strongly advised me to use them instead, and 

 reserve the L.M. for deer and other such harmless animals. 

 But as I had already used the little rifle, and with only the 

 soft-nosed bullet, too, against deer, with most satisfactory 

 results, I had quite made up my mind to try it and the 

 Jeffery at tiger coute qui coute, for the rifle was so very 

 light and well-balanced, that I found I could make much 

 better snap-shooting with it than I had done with the 

 comparatively heavy Express ; therefore, if it proved as 

 powerful as the latter, it would, I considered, necessarily 

 be a better weapon for howdah shooting, where weight and 

 rapidity of fire are such very important factors. 



But to return to my story. Our first camp, actually 

 within the forest tract, was near a large straggling village 

 on the borders of the forest, and only separated from it by 

 a belt of dense grass jungle, some three to four miles in 

 length, the different village homesteads being scattered 

 over this distance. The camp was pitched in compara- 

 tively open country. While sitting smoking after dinner 

 on the first night of our arrival, we heard from time to 

 time, apparently within three or four hundred yards of 

 our tent, the hoarse, guttural call of a leopard, which was 

 evidently prowling round near the cattle-pens in the 

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