THE TIGER. 273 



Narbada" river now included in the Pondsa Reserved Forest, 

 which I was then exploring. The herds of cattle having been 

 withdrawn from the grassy glades on the banks of the Nar- 

 badd, where he usually preyed on them, he had lately been 

 coming out into the open country, and had been heard for 

 several nights roaming round about the village of Chandvel 

 on the edge of the forest. I found his tracks within a hundred 

 yards of the buffalo pens of the village the morning I arrived ; 

 and a few nights before he had broken into aBanj^ra" encamp- 

 ment a little way off, and killed and dragged away a heifer, 

 which he eat within hearing distance of the encampment, 

 charging through the darkness and driving back the Banj^r&s 

 and their dogs' when they tried to interrupt him. I picketed 

 a juicy young buffalo for him the night I arrived, about half 

 a mile from the village where his tracks showed he regularly 

 passed at night. Next morning it was found to have been 

 killed and dragged away about a hundred yards to a small 

 dry watercourse ; and, after having been cleaned as scienti- 

 fically as any butcher could have done it, eaten up all but the 

 head, skin, feet, and one fore quarter. If his footprints had not 

 already shown him to be an unusually large tiger, this feat of 

 gormandizing would have sufficiently done so. We started 

 about ten o'clock on his trail. It was the 12th of April, and a 

 hotter day I never remember. Long before midday the little 

 band of cowherds and shik&ris who accompanied me had 

 most of their wardrobes bound round their heads to keep off 

 the sun ; and I looked for a tussle with such a heavy old 

 tiger, long accustomed to drive off the people he met, if we 

 found him well gorged on such a grilling day as this. We 

 took the track down fully five miles till it entered a long 

 narrow ravine with pools of water at the bottom, and shaded 

 over with a thick cover of trees and bushes. We could not 



