330 THE HIGHLANDS OF OENTKAL INDIA. 



with a longing gaze. I hurried round, but was just in time 

 to see him pause for a moment on the top of a ridge, his grand 

 form appearing dilated to an unnatural size, from the bracing 

 of the muscles, lashing tail, and bristling coat, bathed in the 

 red glow of the setting sun and the blazing jungle. The next 

 instant, before my rifle could be got to bear on him, he 

 plunged down the farther side and disappeared. 



I had one piece of really wonderful luck in this trip, which 

 compensated for a good deal of heavy fagging in vain after 

 the monarch of the jungle. I will quote the account as 

 written at the time, which betrays an enthusiasm I should 

 scarcely be able to call up in such a description now-a-days, 

 and which gives the details of a method of hunting tigers 

 which in later years I abandoned as involving too great a risk 

 of human life, namely, driving with beaters. In such a 

 country as the Upper Narbadd valley, however, the more legi- 

 timate method of stalking with the elephant could scarcely be 

 followed, owing to the extent and density of the cover and 

 the abundance of water. 



Three tigers, namely, a tigress and her two nearly full- 

 grown cubs, had long been the plague of some villages on the 

 banks of the river. Their depredations extended over about 

 five miles of country, where they found beef so plentiful and 

 easily got that they seldom wandered above that distance from 

 their usual haunts, which lay in a mesh of most difficult 

 ravines bordering the Narbadd., and running up towards the 

 hills. The covert here was of the densest description, though 

 thinner, of course, at this time of the year than at any other. 

 On my arrival in the neighbourhood, I was immediately 

 solicited to go and rid it of these pests, and every assistance 

 promised. So I pitched my camp at the village nearest to 

 their haunts, and began to lay plans for their destruction. 



