44 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



sence of mind equal to any occasion or emergency. He was 

 an admirable shot with both rifle and pistol; and when 

 upon his tiger or chetah- destroying expeditions, rarely or 

 ever allowed any other European to accompany him. His 

 fame and prowess were so well known, that whenever any 

 traces of a tiger were discovered within many miles of the 

 cantonment, a Shikaree always arrived to impart the news 

 to him, and he took his measures accordingly, which, indeed, 

 were simple enough, as they generally consisted in placing a 

 bait for the animal, near the spot he was known to haunt, 

 in the shape of a calf or bullock. When aware of the 

 whereabouts of his victim, Sheriff always approached him 

 silently and single-handed, his object being to get a full 

 front view of the tiger at a very short distance if possible, 

 not more than ten or fifteen yards, and to plant his ball 

 exactly between the eyes. This, of course, was rarely done 

 without attracting the observation of the beast, which, in 

 some instances, received its death-wound when in the act of 

 springing upon its antagonist, to whom a miss fire, or the 

 slightest want of nerve, would have been fatal. His weapon 

 was a double-barrelled Joe Manton's rifle, of not very large 

 calibre, but I believe he rarely had to use the second 

 barrel; nor do I remember any occasion, during my resi- 

 dence of two years at Jaulnah, and in which he had killed 

 upwards of twenty-five tigers, that he undertook an expe- 

 dition for this purpose without bringing home the animal as 

 a trophy. 



He despised the usual method of hunting as practised in 

 India, securely seated in a comfortable howdah on the back 

 of an elephant, with some forty or fifty guns, besides your 

 own, ready to fire a volley into the unfortunate tiger imme- 

 diately he makes his appearance, but absolutely courted all 

 the dangers attendant upon his own daring system. Many 

 years are past and gone since I last met this hero of the 



