92 TIGERS. 



post. The brute had entered the nullah, and jumped a pool 

 of water some eight feet in breadth. On seeing this it was 

 clear that he was not hard hit, for if badly wounded he 

 would probably have rushed through instead of jumping 

 over, the stream. Manley also reported that he had not 

 spoken to his shots, so we concluded he was missed, and, 

 leaving directions for the beaters to use plenty of rockets, 

 made a detour, and were again posted about half a mile 

 ahead. Instead of ants my tree this time contained a nest 

 of the small yellow tree bees, which are stingless, and I 

 accordingly helped myself to their honey. This they 

 resented by charging against my face and neck, causing 

 much annoyance ; to add to the discomfort the rockets 

 discharged by the beaters had set fire to the long 

 grass, and we were nearly stifled. Half blinded by 

 the smoke, and grilled by the intense heat of sun 

 and fire, I distinguished myself by firing at an imaginary 

 tiger a log of yellow wood striped with the shadows 

 of the thick stems of coarse grass ; this concluded the 

 day's sport. Next morning the body of the tiger was 

 found in some long grass behind Manley's tree. Our 

 shots had all hit him, and any one of the lot would have 

 been fatal. My shot, a shell, had entered behind the near 

 shoulder and burst in the lungs ; in spite of this he had 

 jumped a nullah, received two more bullets ; and covered 

 150 yards of ground before he collapsed. "We also found 

 the bullet which had been fired by Havelock's shikari a 

 very small one, which had only penetrated a few inches 

 into the muscles of the shoulder. The tiger was one of 

 the short-tailed breed and very powerfully built, with an 

 immense skull, but the skin was completely destroyed by 

 the firing of the long grass. While here, rumours reached 

 us of a sahib having been killed by a tiger in the Mahoor 



