BULLET AND SHOT 



to look on ahead, but not a single one should 

 be otherwise allowed to leave the phalanx, and 

 they ought all to be warned that safety lies in 

 retaining its formation, and that probable death 

 to some of them will ensue should a deep growl, 

 a roar, or even a charge induce them to scatter. 

 In spite of all admonitions, however, scatter they 

 usually will on the first intimation of real and 

 tangible danger, and nearly every year several 

 Englishmen, as well as a good few natives, lose 

 their lives in this most dangerous, but most 

 necessary operation, viz., the following up of 

 wounded tigers on foot. 



A comparatively recent English victim in the 

 Madras Presidency was the late Sir James Dormer, 

 its Commander-in-Chief, who met with his death 

 from injuries inflicted by a tiger whom he had 

 wounded on the Nilgiri hills and had followed up 

 on foot. 



It is very seldom that a European who has been 

 wounded by a tiger recovers, even though his 

 injuries be not very severe. A fatal result from 

 blood-poisoning is the rule, recovery the rare 

 exception. 



It therefore behoves all sportsmen, for the sake 

 of their comrades, as well as of the men with them 

 quite as much as for their own to abstain, when 

 shooting with a party, from firing risky and un- 

 certain shots at tigers ; for it is often,, not the man 

 responsible for the badly placed bullet which has 

 rendered following up necessary, who is killed, but 

 one of his friends, companions, or native beaters. 



126 



