BULLET AND SHOT 



whereas in Assam, without employing tame 

 elephants, and consequently incurring much ex- 

 pense, a sportsman can do nothing. 



In 1882 I had many opportunities of big game 

 shooting, and I bagged my first elephant and 

 some bison, deer, and pig, but did not even see 

 a tiger. 



On the 1 4th December, 1883, on my return 

 from inspection duty to my camp at Naganipur, 

 news was brought me that a tiger had killed a 

 bullock at no great distance. I hurried off to 

 the spot, and sat on the ground on one bank of a 

 shallow nullah in which the carcass lay, but up 

 till dusk, when I returned to camp, the tiger did 

 not appear. 



The next day I went to see if he had visited 

 his kill during the night, and found that he had 

 done so, and had moreover dragged the bullock 

 to some distance, leaving it in a very dense, 

 thorny thicket. 



I had a mechan put up in a tree near, and 

 caused the carcass to be dragged from under the 

 dense canopy of thorn, and left in the open in 

 front of my tree. 



During my vigil, a jackal came and loafed round 

 the kill in an aimless sort of way, and at some 

 distance from it, as if he had not seen it at all, 

 and then disappeared in the jungle. 



Presently, having obviously made a complete, 

 or almost complete circuit, he reappeared from 

 the direction in which he had first shown himself, 

 walked up to within a few paces of the defunct 



140 



