4 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



breaking trees in their progress, so that the line 

 may be maintained. 



In this game more appears to me to depend 

 upon the elephant than upon the man. Staunch- 

 ness is, of course, the most necessary qualification, 

 but it is almost equally important to have an 

 elephant which is active and can move rapidly 

 from one point to another. On two occasions, 

 when I shot in the Nepal Terai with friends, I 

 was fortunate enough to get the loan of a splen- 

 did female shooting-elephant, named Chainchal, 

 which belonged to the Rana of Bhinga ; and on 

 both of these occasions I gave a very good account 

 of myself. On other occasions, when the elephant 

 I had was unreliable, I was unsuccessful. 



A drawback which attaches to tiger-shooting 

 in parties is the scheming of the Indian shikaris 

 to get the shot for some sportsman they favour, 

 either because he is a local magnate or because 

 they hope to receive a liberal reward from him. 

 If the man favoured by the shikari is sitting on 

 one side of the beat, the shoulder of the beat, 

 on the other side, is thrown forward, and the 

 tiger is in this way induced to advance in the 

 direction of the favoured gun. It is wonderful 

 how a beat can be manipulated by an experienced 

 shikari. If the business is overdone the tiger 

 breaks out on the flank before coming up to the 

 guns. I have, more than once, seen a tiger lost in 

 this way, which might easily have been bagged ; 

 and the scheming, whether successful or unsuc- 

 cessful, is a cause of annoyance. 



The mortification of failure in a tiger-shoot 

 transcends also, in my opinion, the pleasure of 



