58 THE TIGER. 



unfortunate countryman, with his skull fractured and 

 his brains uncovered. A little farther on they were 

 shown, in the midst of a field of wheat, a thicket about 

 thirty yards square. It was from this thicket that 

 the tiger had thrown himself upon his victim, and 

 there also he had taken refuge. 



Some thousands of the natives, seeing the hunters, 

 united together around the place, enclosing the tiger 

 in a living circle. It was fortunate for Mr. Dunlop and 

 his friends that they were mounted on the elephants, 

 for on foot it would have been impossible to discharge 

 their guns without wounding some one in the crowd. 

 Now let the narrator speak : 



" Our feline friend, evidently arrived at a pitch of 

 lively excitement, did not await our arrival, but charged 

 upon us of his own accord with a cry of rage. 



" The three elephants with one accord faced about, 

 and ran one against the other, screaming and crying 

 with fright, whilst Bradford danced around them on 

 my chestnut, ( Waverley.' Several shots were never- 

 theless fired by our quadrille, and with some success, 

 inasmuch as whilst neither of us was hit, one ball 

 was sent through the fore-leg of the tiger just in time 

 to stop short his charge, and to send him back into 

 the cover. 



"An active struggle now began between the elephants 

 and their drivers, seeing that no force, moral or phy- 



