290 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



use of one for a few weeks. They may also be frequently 

 borrowed from wealthy natives ; but in that case will seldom 

 be found to possess the hard condition necessary for severe 

 work in the hot season. In the later years of our forest 

 work we always had several Government elephants allowed 

 for the carriage of baggage and riding purposes ; and, as I 

 always kept one of my own besides, I could generally 

 muster enough to drive effectively any tiger ground in 

 Central India. .But I rarely took out more than one elephant 

 besides my own when shooting alone, finding that quiet 

 hunting was far more successful than the bustle of many 

 elephants and the rabble of men that usually accompany a 

 tiger hunt. 



In the end of April and May of 1862 I bagged six tigers 

 and one panther in the Betul jungles, wounding two more 

 tigers which escaped. I was unable regularly to devote myself 

 to tiger-shooting, having much forest work to do, and my shoot- 

 ing was also much interfered with by accidental circumstances. 

 A sprained tendon laid me up for fifteen days of the best 

 weather (the hottest), and there was so much cholera about 

 that many of the best places had to remain un visited. 

 Another party was also shooting in the same district ; and, 

 though they arrived after me in the field, contrary to the well- 

 understood rule in such circumstances, proceeded ahead and 

 disturbed the whole country by indiscriminate firing at deer 

 and peafowl. It is scarcely necessary to say that when after 

 tigers nothing else should be fired at. The Lalla came out strong 

 under these unfavourable circumstances, working ahead and 

 securing by his plausible tongue a monopoly of information, 

 in which he was well seconded by the conduct of our rivals 

 in harassing the people in the matter of provisions, and 

 thrashing them all round if a tiger was not found for them 



