TIGERS. 101 



about twenty-five yards off, moving slowly through 

 the trees towards the camp, not three hundred yards 

 distant. Knowing he must turn to the left to reach 

 the scrub jungle, I watched a small glade towards which 

 he was heading, and where he would give a clear broadside 

 shot when crossing. Just at that moment another growl 

 emanated from a spot a few yards to my right, and 

 there, within ten yards, was another tiger, slowly heading 

 in the same direction as its comrade, but, owing to 

 the bushes, and its being tail-on to me, I could not 

 get a fair shot, so resumed watching the glade, but as 

 neither appeared, after some seconds I followed as 

 noiselessly as possible till the confines of the camp 

 were reached, but never saw them again, and they 

 undoubtedly crossed into the scrub jungle when I was 

 following them up, as the tank barred the way on the 

 right. I then told Patterson what had occurred, offering 

 to go halves in any damage done if he would tie up his 

 pony. This he declined to do with a good deal of warmth ; 

 we had no bails available, and my horse was too big a 

 bait, so the incident closed. We beat for them throughout 

 the following day, but without result. In those days the 

 forests from Shimoga, by Luckwalli, on to the Baba 

 Boodens, were prolific in big game of all kinds, except 

 buffaloes, which are not as a rule found south of the 

 Nerbudda river; and, although tigers were numerous, 

 a man-eater was very seldom heard of, owing, no doubt, 

 to the abundance of pigs and deer throughout that district. 

 A few years before an exception had existed in the famous 

 Benkipore man-eater a tigress which was credited with 

 having killed over 250 human beings. Her favourite 

 stronghold was the Kargeehully ravine, a heavily wooded 

 nullah of large extent, three miles distant from the 



