300 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



local shikaris were admirable trackers; and we carried the 

 line down within about a mile of the river, where a dense 

 thorny cover began, through which no one could follow a 

 tiger. 



We slept that night at the little village ; and early next 

 morning made a long cast ahead, proceeding at once to the 

 river, where we soon hit upon the track leading straight 

 down its sandy bed. There were some strong covers reported 

 in the river-bed some miles ahead, near the large village of 

 Bhadugaon, so I sent back to order the tent over there. The 

 track was crossed in this river by several others, but was 

 easily distinguishable from all by its superior size. It had 

 also a peculiar drag of the toe of one hind foot, which the 

 people knew and attributed to a wound he had received some 

 months before from a shikari's matchlock. There was thus no 

 doubt we were behind the man-eater ; and I determined to 

 follow him while I could hold out and we could keep the track. 

 It led right into a very dense cover of jaman and tamarisk, 

 in the bed and on the banks of the river, a few miles above 

 Bhadugaon. Having been hard pushed the previous day, we 

 hoped he might lie up here ; and, indeed, there was no other 

 place he could well go to for water and shade. So we circled 

 round the outside of the cover, and, finding no track leading 

 out, considered him fairly ringed. We then went over to the 

 village for breakfast, intending to return in the heat of the 

 day. 



There I was told by one of the mahouts a story, which I 

 afterwards heard confirmed from the lips of one of the prin- 

 cipal actors, regarding a notable encounter with tigers in the 

 very cover where we had ringed the man-eater. It was in 

 1853 that the two brothers N. and Colonel G. beat the cover 

 for a family of tigers said to be in it. One of the brothers 



