56 THE TIGER 



which to all appearances had only just quitted his 

 feast. The ground was too hard to judge of the 

 animal from the footprints. Nevertheless, they im- 

 mediately formed in line, and the hunt commenced 

 along a dry trench, partly covered by the jungle. At 

 the first turn of the route an animal sprang out of the 

 ditch, and for a second stood on the opposite bank, at 

 a distance of sixty yards from the hunters. A ghoorka 

 declared that it was a calf; but it proved to be a 

 full-grown tigress. 



Pursuit commenced immediately. The animal rushed 

 across a large piece of ground, on which the grass had 

 been burnt, but the most that it could do, being gorged 

 with food, was to keep just in advance of the line of 

 the seven elephants, which were rushing forward at 

 their utmost speed. 



The tigress charged straight through a herd of 

 cattle, which immediately dispersed. At length, after 

 a race of about two miles, she reached a part of the 

 jungle which crossed a deep nullah, and the hunt 

 began again. " Scarcely had I entered that part of 

 the jungle which I was about to search, when I saw 

 her under a bush, crouching down, ready to make a 

 spring ; and firing one barrel straight between her eyes, 

 she rolled over into the nullah. She threw herself 

 repeatedly against the side in her attempts to remount, 

 but failed to accomplish it, all troubled as she was 



