Ill 



A BELGAUM TIGER 



I WAS staying with some friends a Forest 

 Officer and his wife in camp, in the Belgaum 

 districts, and having a very good time, but 

 we could not succeed in bagging a tiger that was 

 killing our buffaloes, and for whom we had tried 

 several times in vain. The men all said he was a 

 very big one and had lived in these jungles for 

 years, but was far too wary ever to give a chance 

 of a shot at him. Laximan, a forest guard, and 

 a very keen shikari, said he had seen him, and his 

 head was " so big," measuring off about eighteen 

 inches between his hands to show us the size. 

 Another man spread his hands farther apart and 

 told us that was more the size, and another still 

 wider, so that the tiger grew every minute and his 

 head was well over a yard across before they had 

 finished with him. 



Laximan said we should have a better chance of 

 getting him in the hot weather, and if he could 

 get his leave then he would go with me, if his sahib 

 approved. When the time came my friend most 

 kindly arranged matters about Laximan's leave, 

 and also lent me his own tent, which was much 

 larger than mine, for my sister, who had come out 

 to visit us in India. 



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