THE FIGHT. 38.5 



nearly finished carcase of a young wild hoar, which 

 had, I presume, been caught napping, and surprised 

 by one of the tigers a night or two before. Sud- 

 denly, when I had beaten nearly to the end of the 

 patch of jo\v, I heard a roar far in my rear, and 

 turning round, I saw a couple of men flying for 

 their lives through the bushes, and the tiger, for- 

 tunately for them, galloping in an opposite direc- 

 tion. The men, I afterwards learnt, had again 

 disobeyed my strict injunctions, and entered the 

 cover. How they escaped, I don't know ; the 

 tiger must have been a very cowardly one, though 

 he did afterwards show fight. 



" Well, he galloped across an open bit of sand 

 in the centre of the river's bed, and once more lay 

 up in some thick jow. I turned back and made 

 towards the place ; and, directed by some men on 

 the bank, advanced straight on the spot where he 

 was. He started up, and galloped across my front, 

 and I sent him heels over head a complete somer- 

 sault with a bullet through the shoulder, and drove 

 a second one into him before he recovered himself. 

 This, however, he did, and came down straight at 

 the elephant, tail on end. I just managed to cock 

 a barrel of my second gun, and turned him, when 

 within two or three yards, with another shot in the 

 shoulder. He passed close to the foot of the ele- 



