of the Old World. 315 



accurate shooting by the light of the moon, which is 

 very deceitful, it was with some reluctance that I 

 ordered Chineah to take a rifle and go with Naga to 

 the hut for the rest of the gang, and I regretted it 

 almost as soon as I had done so, for I felt a strange 

 presentiment of some accident occurring, being aware 

 of the extreme danger of beating out a wounded tiger 

 from thick cover in such an uncertain light ; how- 

 ever I determined to take every precaution, and 

 clambering down into the nullah, followed by Goo- 

 gooloo, we watched each side of the cover in which the 

 tigress had been seen to enter, until Chineah and the 

 rest of the gang, accompanied by our Coolies, joined 



us. We then formed up in line, B taking the 



right and I the left .flank, with Chineah well provided 

 with rockets in the centre, and all the rest armed 

 with the short spears they generally carried when 

 beating the jungle. 



Having distinctly warned them not on any account 

 to straggle or separate, and seen that our spare guns 

 were at hand, we moved into the cover, which, although 

 not more than fifty yards long by twenty broad, was 

 very dense, being covered with low tangled bushes 

 and coarse grass about four feet high. We could 

 easily have driven the tigress out by firing the grass, 

 but I did not do so as the blaze would have scared all 

 the game away from the surrounding jungles. We 

 had beaten our way steadily through almost half the 



