ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 273 



four fresh tigers were in a patch of cypress in the Nerbudda, 

 close to the junction, where our markers had seen them. We 

 were not long in turning out, and on reaching the place pro- 

 ceeded to examine the ground. The tigers were in a covert 

 some 200 yards in length and 150 broad, thick in parts, but 

 broken into ridges by the action of heavy floods, and between 

 these ridges were open spaces of sand and shingle. On the 

 bank at the angle of the junction was a point from which 

 a good bird's-eye view could be obtained of the bed of the 

 river, and round the corner, in the Maun, was the cypress 

 covert, in and about which we had hunted on the four pre- 

 vious days. 



We arranged that I should stand at the angle, while Ward 

 beat up the tigers with the elephant. As he approached 

 the covert the scene became very interesting, and the tigers 

 moved rapidly from one ridge to the other. I had a perfect 

 view of the whole proceeding, and as the beasts showed we 

 fired with various effects. Several, I knew, were hard hit, 

 but so many were running about the covert that it was im- 

 possible to say which were wounded. 



Presently, with her tail standing out behind her like a 

 kitchen-poker, the old tigress charged past my post, growling 

 savagely. I had a good shot in the open, but missed her very 

 disgracefully, and she went at full speed round the corner 

 into the Maun river. Meanwhile, Ward was not idle, and as 

 I watched his movements I observed a tiger enter a ridge of 

 cypress on the far side of the covert, and close to the stream 

 of the Nerbudda. 



Soon after Ward moved up towards me and said they were 

 all dead with the exception of the tigress which I had let go. 

 I asked " how many were dead ? " he replied, " Three." " Then," 

 said I, " there is still a fourth in the covert." Ward was in- 



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