TIGtiRS. 103 



merely remaining perfectly still, in the belief that he would 

 not discover me. My second rifle lay on the rock beside 

 me, as the gun-carrier had been sent away to lessen the 

 chance of being seen. When about eighty yards off he 

 stopped, and had a good stare at me. I remained perfectly 

 still, but he had evidently spotted me. He then moved a 

 yard or two to his right, and quietly lay down under the 

 tree I was to have been posted in. The foresight was 

 " swimming " owing to the intense heat, and as the 

 distance was too great for a certain shot, I tried to stalk 

 him, but he was too much on the alert, and kept raising 

 his head from time to time to watch me. The beaters 

 came on in an irregular line of groups, and the tiger, 

 watching his opportunity, doubled back through the line 

 between two groups, passing them within a few yards 

 without being seen. One cannot blame the poor natives 

 for acting thus, unarmed as they are, and, considering 

 everything, they work well and pluckily as a rule, when 

 properly handled by a sufficient number of armed shikaries 

 distributed among them, which gives them greater con- 

 fidence. The Benkipore folk had also been shaken by an 

 amusing incident, which had occurred shortly before my 

 visit. The village shikari was my informant, and stated 

 that about two miles up the river Boodra which flows 

 past the travellers' bungalow there was a very large tiger, 

 the largest he ever saw like a horse in size (!) and that 

 a certain sahib went out one day to beat for him over a 

 kill. They beat right up to the bank of the river, where he 

 was posted in a large tree, but saw no trace of the tiger. 

 So the sahib descended, and he and the beaters were 

 walking along the bank towards a fresh beat, when 

 suddenly the tiger jumped up from some long grass in the 

 bed of the river, and entering the water, which was about 



