SOME TIGER AND PANTHER STORIES 35 



I then sent for the others, and Wood and Lums- 

 den joined me. The tiger had retreated to the 

 bushes from which he had charged, and lay there 

 growling. We all advanced upon him together, 

 but my elephant was badly shaken and would not 

 keep in line with the other two. Wood saw, or 

 thought he saw, the tiger, and fired the first shot, 

 but the tiger made no response and continued his 

 low growling. Lumsden then pushed forward on 

 Chainchal, and saw the tiger lying on the ground, 

 and put a bullet into his brain. There were two 

 bullet-holes in his side, and his hind-leg was broken 

 to pieces below the hock. My bullet had struck 

 him in the flank and run down his hind-leg, as 

 it was stretched out behind him in the gallop, 

 But for this he would probably have sprung on 

 top of the elephant, and might have pulled one 

 of us out of the howdah, as he was in no way 

 crippled and made a most determined charge. 

 The elephant was badly mauled, but recovered 

 under treatment. If she had not turned round, I 

 might have finished off the tiger without difficulty 

 with the second barrel. 



This was the best tiger-shoot in which I ever 

 took part, though in the matter of the bag I 

 personally came off badly. My elephant did not 

 serve me well, but in the first beat I made a bad 

 error of judgment. I think, however, that I 

 put the first bullet into one of the three full- 

 grown tigers which were killed, and contributed 

 materially to the death of another. I may 

 possibly have transposed the order of one or two 

 of the hunts, but the different events and scenes 

 are still fresh in my memory. 



