VERTEBRA TV. 



very interesting description of the power and dexterity of the elephants in overthrowing trees to 

 make a road : 



••(»!! clearing the wood," he Bays, "we entered an open space of marshy grass not three feet 

 hi'_ r l> ; a large herd of cattle were feeding there, and the herdsman was sitting singing under a 

 bosh, when, just as the former began to move before us, up sprang the very tiger for whom our 

 \ i-it \v.-i< intended, and cantered off across a bare plain dotted with small patches of bush-jungle. 

 Be toot to the open country in a style which would have more become a fox than a tiger, who 

 l- expected by his pursuers to fighl and not to run, and ;is he was flushed on the Hank of the line 

 only one bullet was fired at him ere he cleared the thick grass. He was unhurt ; and we pursued 

 him at full >]>eed. Twice he threw us out by stopping short in small strips of jungle; and then 

 heading back after we had passed ; and he had given us a very fast trot of about two miles when 

 •in i Arnold, who led the field, at last reached him by a capital shot, his elephant being infill' 



'T. 



■ \- soon as lie felt himself wounded, the tiger crept into a close thicket of trees and bushes, 

 and crouched. The two hading sportsmen overran the place where he lay, and as I came up 1 

 Baw him through an aperture rising to attempt a charge. My mahout had just before, in the 

 heat of the chase, dropped his ankors, or goad, which 1 had refused to allow him to recover, and 

 the ehphant being notoriously savage, and further irritated by the goading he had undergone, 

 became consequently unmanageable; he appeared to see the tiger as soon as myself, and I had 

 only time to fire one shot when he suddenly rushed with the greatest fury into the thicket, and 

 falling upon his knees nailed the tiger with his tusks to the ground. Such was the violence of 

 the diock that my servant, who sat behind, was thrown out, and one of my guns went overboard. 

 The struggles of my elephant to crush his still resisting foe, who had fixed one paw on his eye, 

 were so energetic that I was obliged to hold on with all my strength to keep myself in the 

 houdah. The second barrel, too, of the gun, which I still retained in my hand, went off in the 

 scuffle, the ball passing (dose to the mahout's ear, whose situation, poor fellow, was any thing but 

 enviable. As soon as my elephant was prevailed upon to leave the killing part of the business 

 to the sportsmen, the] gave the roughly used tiger the coup-de-grace. It was a very fine female, 

 with the most beautiful skin I ever saw." 



An English gentleman who was present, gives the following account of a hunting-party of the 

 Nawab Asuf-ud-Dowlah. After describing the immense cavalcade of the nawab, he says: 



••The first tiger we saw and killed was in the mountains. We went to attack him about noon; 

 he was in a narrow valley, which the nawab surrounded with about two hundred elephants; we 

 heard him growl horribly in a thick bush in the middle of the valley. Being accustomed to the 

 -port, and very eager, I pushed in my elephant; the fierce beast charged me immediately; the 

 timid animal, turned tail, and deprived me of the opportunity to fire. I ventured 

 again, attended by two or three other elephants; the tiger made a spring, and nearly reached 

 the hack of one of the elephants on which were three or four men; the elephant shook himself 

 80 forcibly a> to thn>w these men off his back, and they tumbled into the bush ; 1 gave them up 

 for lo>t, but was agreeably surprised to see them creep out unhurt. His excellency was all this 

 time on a rising ground near the thicket, looking on calmly, and beckoning to me to drive the 

 tiger toward him. I made another attempt, and with more success; be darted out toward me 

 on my approach, roaring furiously and lashing his sides with his tail. I luckily got a shot and 

 hit him; he retreated into the bush, and ten or twelve elephants just then pushed into the 

 thicket, alarmed the tiger, and obliged him to run toward the nawab, who instantly gave him a 

 warm reception, and with the assistance of some of his omras, or lords, laid the tiger sprawling 

 on his Bide. A loud shout of'Wha! what' proclaimed the victory." 



'I bis i- hunting on a grand scale, but it is altogether insignificant in comparison with the hunts 

 of the ( Ihinese emperors in their Tartar provinces. These serve to exercise the troops in winter, 

 and are of great antiquity. They were practiced by Genghis Khan, and are still continued. The 

 emperor commands the huntsmen to trace out a vast circle of perhaps thirty miles in circum- 

 ference. Tin' officers then station their troops, inclosing it around; the soldiers begin their 

 march to the sound of martial music, and continue gradually to advance toward the centre, keep- 



