266 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



ing the hot weather, but large stagnant pools remain in parts ; 

 and in many places along the beds of the rivers the bastard 

 cypress grows freely, intermingled with willows and other 

 green bushes, which refresh the eye amid the general parched- 

 up vegetation. These bushes are covered by the floods during 

 the monsoon, when the dried-up beds are swept by mighty 

 torrents ; but, though the water disappears in summer, the 

 undersoil is moistened by the percolation through the sand, 

 and the bushes retain their verdure, forming comparatively 

 cool retreats for tigers, who, in addition to their ordinary 

 prey of pigs, nylghae, and porcupines, are attracted by the 

 herds of cattle which are brought down by their owners from 

 the more dried-up districts. 



We had received reliable information of the presence of 

 game, and had sent on tents, servants, and " shikarees," that 

 all might be in readiness on our arrival. We had only one 

 elephant, but he was a staunch one, though dangerous at 

 times, and, when employed with the troops on service in 

 1858, had killed a soldier who had incautiously come within 

 reach of his trunk. The elephant, together with our gun- 

 bearers and a native horseman, preceded us from Dhurrem- 

 pooree before daybreak on the morning of the 1st of April, 

 and it was still dark when my friend and I mounted our 

 horses and followed them. 



We had proceeded two or three miles along the track 

 formed by village carts, which is all the apology for a road 

 which the country affords, when the day broke, and we then 

 observed, in the very cart-rut in which one of us was riding, 

 the fresh footprints of a tiger which had passed along in the 

 early morning. They were not to be mistaken in the heavy 

 dust, but were in parts obliterated by the tracks of the ele- 

 phant and our gun-bearers, who had evidently passed the spot 



