INCIDENTS IN TIGER SHOOTING 



The next ' moment I saw, what appeared to me 

 an enormous tiger, walk slowly across my front. 

 The animal seemed to me to be as big as a bullock, 

 but it was probably only a tigress, the mamma of 

 the cub which I had just seen. In my excitement 

 I missed clean, and the beast bounded back into 

 the huge expanse of grass whence she had come. 

 The cub must have taken a line of its own, for 

 I did not see it after I had viewed the big one. 



My feelings may be better 'imagined than 

 described ! 



The opportunity was certainly a splendid one, 

 and I had miserably failed to avail myself of it. 

 It would indeed have been satisfactory had my 

 first head of big game been a tiger ; but, alas L 

 my own unsteadiness, from intense excitement due 

 to extreme keenness, had alone prevented this 

 desirable result. 



This was the only tiger which I saw during 

 five years' residence in Assam and Sylhet, though 

 I availed myself of every opportunity of watching 

 for them, whenever I received news of a kill. 



In the autumn of 1881 I left Assam and went 

 to Mysore, where I had been offered, and had 

 accepted, an appointment in the Forest Depart- 

 ment. 



I had previously met the author of Thirteen 

 Years amongst the Wild Beasts of India quite 

 accidentally in Calcutta, and first heard of his book 

 (which, of course, I at once purchased) from him- 

 self, and I was charmed at the prospect of going 

 to a country where sport is obtainable on foot ; 



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