104 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



time than was anticipated. The tiger was in 

 the beat, but broke out to one side without 

 offering me a shot. 



Valuable time had been wasted, and it was 

 3 p.m. on the 1st of January when we reached 

 the place where we had last seen the tigress. 

 I have read and heard stories of buffaloes following 

 eagerly the scent along the blood- track of a tiger ; 

 but the buffaloes we had, when laid on the track, 

 took no interest in it and quickly began to graze. 

 There was no time to lose, so we picked up the 

 track and followed it. The ground was fairly 

 open, and my intention was to drive the buffaloes 

 in front of us if we should enter thick jungle. 

 The track led to some stunted sal, and, as the 

 cover was thick, I stopped and said, "This is a 

 bad place; send for the buffaloes/' The tracker 

 was a Baiga, and was an unusually large and 

 powerful man for an aborigine, and he and I 

 were leading, he being on my left, whilst the 

 rest of the party were in the rear. There was, 

 as we afterwards found, some open ground 

 immediately in front of us, and the tigress, seeing 

 this, had turned to the left and lain down in the 

 thick jungle. The words were hardly out of my 

 mouth when she gave a roar and charged. I 

 swung round to shoot, and the Baiga, hearing 

 the tigress close behind him, made a panic- 

 stricken dash forward, and came against the 

 rifle. He struggled desperately and forced me 

 back a'gainst two trees, and in the struggle my 

 rifle went off, and my hat was knocked off and was 

 crushed and damaged. While we were struggling 

 the tigress charged by us at only five or six yards' 



