BULLET AND SHOT 



While that card remains there, no other shooting- 

 party will interfere with the tigers in the neighbour- 

 hood. 



From all accounts, the jungles in the tiger country 

 of the Deccan are comparatively open, and it often 

 happens that the beat is across an expanse of rocky 

 and rather hilly ground, with low scrub jungle here 

 and there. 



Extraordinary bags of tigers have been made 

 in that province, and I have met a young officer 

 of the 7th Hussars, who, during the first two hot 

 weathers which he spent in India, was at the death 

 of forty-two (including cubs) in that splendid tract 

 of country for the sport. 



The shikarries of the Deccan know their work 

 well, and frequently, year after year, tigers are 

 killed from the same rock or the same tree. Water 

 is scarce, and so it is easy to show the baits to 

 any tigers which may frequent a given locality, by 

 tying out near each pool in the neighbouring 

 jungles. 



The heat in the Deccan during the hot weather 

 is intense, and the days on which there is no 

 khubber (information) drag along very wearily, 

 there being little small game in the country. 



A member of a party of three guns, who col- 

 lectively bagged thirteen tigers in one hot weather, 

 told me that each of his tigers (I think that he 

 personally shot five) cost him about ^50. That 

 party, no doubt, disregarded expense and lived 

 very luxuriously, for the officer in the 7th Hussars 

 who is referred to above, told me that his expenses, 



128 



