306 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



tiger on his neck, and sundry claw-marks on his sides. 

 Immediately beside the well the ground had been irrigated on 

 the previous day for a young crop. About one hundred yards 

 off was some green wheat, in which the bull had been feeding 

 when first attacked, while farther off was a watercourse, used 

 during the dry season as a road, along which the tiger had 

 advanced. Following the footprints in the dust and moist 

 ground, the whole scene was brought vividly before us. 



Passing along the watercourse in his nocturnal ramble, 

 the tiger had seen the bull grazing in the green wheat, and, 

 standing with his two fore-paws on the side of the bank, had 

 formed his plan of operations. Keeping under the shelter of 

 the bank up to the nearest point, he had slipped quietly up 

 on the cultivated ground, and had then crept along unper- 

 cieved till he reached the wheat. Crouching along the edge 

 of the high crop, he had approached his prey unperceived, till 

 within reach for his final rush. Then came the tug of war. 

 From this point to the edge of the field the wheat was beaten 

 down, and here, and in the moist ground beyond, the foot- 

 prints of bull and tiger were deeply marked. No part of the 

 bull had been eaten, and we hoped that the tiger, which was 

 evidently a very large one, would return at night. My men 

 made a platform for me in one of the trees by the well ; but, 

 as the moon did not rise till about 9 P.M., we were obliged to 

 take other precautions. To prevent the tiger from dragging 

 the carcass, we secured it with strong ropes, and near the 

 hind quarter, at which part a tiger always commences to feed, 

 I set my large iron panther-trap, carefully covered with earth 

 and grass. I did not expect that it could long detain the 

 tiger ; but I hoped it would do so sufficiently to allow me 

 to put in a couple of shots by the light of a large grass torch, 

 which, with some lucifers, was kept in readiness by one of 

 my men who watched with me. 



