176 TIGERS AND PUTRID FLESH. 



"'Yesterday, the last day of the month, I went out about 

 ' mid-day (it was a wet morning) with the avaricious hope of 

 ' adding something more to the month's bag. My first point 

 ' was to visit the carcass of the bison I killed last Monday, 

 ' i.e., yesterday week, and if a tiger was there to bag him 

 ' first, and then go on and bag something else. I expressed 

 ' myself to this effect to my friend before starting. Well, 

 ' when I arrived at the spot where I left the dead bison, lo 

 ' and behold it was not there ! A broad trail, showed pretty 

 ' plainly that a tiger had carried it off to a more convenient 

 'dining-room. We crept along as lightly as mice after the 

 ' missing carcass. By Jove, we might have shut our eyes and 

 ' hunted it, the drag stunk so ! About two hundred yards 

 'down the hill we came on the remains of His Royal 

 ' Highness's first meal, which appears to have consisted of 

 'about half the bison. As I was peering round I beheld, at the 

 'foot of a rock, a good deal concealed by bamboos and bushes> 

 ' the long striped hide of the tiger himself lying at full length on 

 ' his side. * * * I was, I should say, between forty and fifty 

 ' paces off, and at first could not tell where his head was, whether 

 ' towards or away from me ; but his suddenly putting his paw over 

 ' his head to brush away flies gave me the required information. 

 'Cocking my rifle I took a deliberate pot to catch him in the 

 1 chest, just under the armpit. No savage roar replied to the re- 

 ' port, but the tiger sprung to his feet, and I sprung out of sight' " 



" During my experience of over a score of years as a 

 skikarie in the Soonderbuns, the haunt par excellence of the 

 royal quarry, I have frequently found tigers feeding on game 

 shot by me, and that they prefer to wait to eat it until such 

 time as it sends forth a highly unpleasant odour. Out of the 

 many instances that I remember I shall select one which I 

 think rather curious, and calculated to interest the reader. 



" Many years ago, as I was sailing down the Passur river 



