260 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



this method of hunting many more tigers are wounded than are 

 finally secured, the only danger lying in following up a wounded 

 animal, which is usually avoided ; and thus an innocuous animal 

 is often converted into a scourge of the country side. A very 

 few sportsmen do, for a short period of their lives, make a prac- 

 tice of hunting and shooting tigers really on foot ; but they are 

 seldom very successful, and sooner or later get killed, or have 

 such narrow escapes as to cure them of such silly folly for the 

 remainder of their days. A man on foot has no chance what- 

 ever in thick jungle with a tiger that is bent on killing him. 

 He cannot see a yard before him, and is himself conspicuous 

 to every sense of the brute, who can completely hide in a 

 place that looks scarcely enough to conceal a rat, and can 

 move at will through the thickest cover without the slightest 

 sound or stir. At the same time the sportsman who as a rule 

 uses an elephant in thick cover will find quite enough oppor- 

 tunities, in special cases, of testing his nerve on foot, particu- 

 larly if he marks down and tracks his own game instead of 

 employing shikans to do so. Even on the elephant all is not 

 perfect safety, instances being not rare of elephants being com- 

 pletely pulled down by tigers, while accidents from the run- 

 ning away of the elephant in tree jungle are still more com- 

 mon. Much of the excitement of the sport depends on the 

 sportsman's method of attacking the tiger. Some men box a 

 tiger up in a corner and push in at all hazards, getting 

 repeatedly charged, while others keep at a distance, circling 

 round and offering doors of escape to the tiger, and never get 

 a charge at all. As a rule, when on an elephant in fair ground, 

 the object should be to get the tiger to charge instead of 

 letting him sneak away, as the hunt is then ended in a short 

 and exciting encounter, while if let away it may be hours 

 before he is found again, if he ever is at all. 



