ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 301 



set off, and later in the day returned, having taken the tracks 

 up to an iron-pit. We at once sallied forth, and, standing near 

 the brink, hurled in stones, but the tigers, had passed on. We 

 hunted about for some time in the neighbouring jungle, and 

 got a glimpse of one tiger, but returned home empty-handed. 



Next morning, however, we got word of the tigress having 

 been seen in a strip of out-lying jungle, and having posted our- 

 selves in trees we sent men round to drive. Captain Bannerman 

 was not skilled in woodcraft, and seldom handled a gun, but 

 on this occasion he armed himself with one of my rifles, and 

 sat in a tree about forty yards to my right. As the beaters 

 advanced I heard the footsteps of a tiger among the dry 

 leaves, and soon after I caught sight of one of the cubs making 

 off along the face of a bank beyond Captain Bannerman. My 

 view was greatly obstructed by trees, but I made a lucky shot 

 and dropped the tiger dead. The tigress got away, and we 

 did not see her. 



An adjoining bit of jungle was beaten without success, 

 but here we came on fresh marks of bears. High up in the 

 branches of some lofty trees hung the combs of bees, and 

 though the bark was white and smooth, and the trees clear of 

 branches to a height of forty feet, they were deeply scored by 

 the claw-marks, old and recent, of many bears. 



Three miles to the south-west of Baug lay a ravine in 

 which my men reported another troop of tigers, and four 

 miles farther on was the Mogra ravine, described in the 

 last chapter. The first ravine I hunted from Baug, I saw the 

 big tiger, but he went up the side of a hill, out of shot, and 

 got away. Dhokul, however, fired at and killed one of the 

 cubs, a small beast, about six feet in length. On two subse- 

 quent occasions I hunted here, but though the tigress was 

 often seen by the beaters she always kept clear of my post. 



