TIGER-SHOOTING. 221 



grass and brushwood, though there were some 

 fine forest trees about which at that season, how- 

 ever, were bare and leafless, with one or two 

 exceptions. It was a somewhat difficult place to 

 beat, so we thought our best plan was to walk up 

 to the kill, which we found lying under a jamun- 

 bush overhanging the left bank of the river, and 

 close to one of the few little pools of water left 

 in it, in the hopes the tiger might be lying close 

 by, and thus afford us a shot. 



This proceeding was in itself a mistake, as 

 subsequent events proved ; still, had it not been 

 for my own inexcusable over-eagerness and stu- 

 pidity, we might eventually have bagged this 

 tiger. Lutchman assented to our suggested plan 

 of attack to a certain extent, but said, if we did 

 not find the tiger in the close vicinity of the kill,, 

 we might walk up the nullah and look at some 

 thin cover that lay a short distance beyond. 

 Then, if we did not find there, that we should 

 make a detour, and, posting ourselves, beat up the 

 nullah from this spot. 



This plan we proceeded to carry out. and had 

 hardly gone some three hundred yards from the 

 kill, when the tiger jumped up from under the 

 left bank of the nullah from under a jamuii bush,, 

 looked at us for a second, then, turning, trotted 

 up the nullah, and, springing up the right bank,, 



