THE TIGER S PARTIALITY TO PUTRID FLESH. I JJ 



in the Soonderbuns, I observed a rather large sized crocodile 

 (our so-called alligator), and having succeeded in getting 

 within a couple of hundred yards or so of him, I managed 

 to place a ball from my rifle into his neck, which turned 

 him over ; another leaden bolus lodged exactly behind his 

 shoulder, gave him his coup de grace, and enabled me effec- 

 tually to secure him. As I was journeying to a location, 

 which was not far from there, and as the skull and skin of 

 ' the monster of the deep ' was well worth preserving, being 

 about seventeen feet in length, I attached a stout coir rope 

 round its neck, and towed it on. I arrived at my destination 

 rather late in the afternoon, and hauled the carcass on shore, 

 leaving it about twenty to thirty paces from the ghat or 

 landing place, off which the bholio or accommodation boat 

 was anchored, to be there operated on the following day. 



"The next morning I was rather surprised to learn that 

 the corpus was non est inventus, and on going to the spot to 

 investigate into the cause of its sudden disappearance, I at 

 once discovered that it had been carried, or rather dragged 

 away by a tiger, as the animal had left impressions of his 

 immense feet clearly discernible on the soft ground round 

 about. I followed the trail into some null, a species of red 

 jungle, not far from the place where my boat was put up, and 

 soon came upon the carcass, which I found untasted by the 

 tiger. I left it where I found it in hopes of getting a shot 

 at the audacious robber, should he return to appropriate the 

 spoil, but it remained untouched for three successive days, 

 when I thought it useless to keep watch over it any longer ; 

 and the stink from it was awfully bad, as decomposition had 

 then set in. The next morning, on going to secure the skull, 

 I was a good deal astonished to find it gone ! The tiger had 



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