TIGERLAND 



and reed jungle about a half mile long, running along the 

 banks of the river and connected with the main portion 

 of the larger belt of grass by an isthmus of thick scrub 

 jungle, sufficiently dense to conceal the movements of a 

 leopard or even a tiger, in passing from one piece to the 

 other. As the strip was not very broad and we had some 

 eight or nine elephants, we determined to beat from the 

 forest side towards the open, feeling sure that our " line " 

 would be too closely packed to allow of the animal breaking 

 back without being discovered ; but to make quite sure 

 we decided to have one howdah with the line and the other 

 on the right flank of the beating elephants, and to move about 

 twenty yards in front of them along the edge of the grass. 



We drew lots for choice of position, and H , winning, 



decided in favour of the flanking howdah. The line had 

 scarcely entered the jungle when a waving of the grass 

 about thirty yards to my right front attracted my attention, 

 and a few minutes later I heard both barrels of H 's 

 Express fired in rapid succession, followed by a quick move- 

 ment in the grass across the line and about fifty yards ahead 

 of it. I did not fire, as the grass was too high, and the animal 

 travelling too fast. A moment later the mahout of the 

 beater elephant, on the extreme left of the line, called out, 

 " He is crossing the river," but instead of doing so the 

 leopard for such it proved to be had entered a very 

 thick clump of reed and scrub jungle growing on a sand 

 bank in the centre of the stream. We followed as quickly 

 as we could make our way through the thick long grass, 

 and were about to take the line across when we found that 

 between us and the island there was a " great gulf fixed," 

 for the stream, though only 18 inches deep, and to the island 

 only some 10 feet wide, covered a dangerous quicksand, in 

 which even the smallest elephant we had (a young one, 

 about 5 feet high) sank up to his knees and struggled out 

 with the greatest difficulty, shrieking with terror. We 

 knew the leopard was there possibly wounded, and there 

 he would remain until forced out, and we had no means 

 of forcing him ! Our only comfort was that he could not 

 get out from the other side without being detected, as the 

 country was open in that direction for some distance, 

 with cultivation here and there. The opposite bank of 

 246 



