78 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



Much of this famous field of battle has been swept away 

 by the encroachments of the river on its left bank about 

 this neighbourhood, and little now remains by which it may 

 be identified ; but the low marshy plain described as lying 

 on the left of Surajah Dowlah's host may still be seen, denuded, 

 however, of the jungle which covered it in old times. Within 

 the last dozen or twenty years, round shot and bullets have 

 been picked up by ploughmen turning the soil, but none, 

 I think very recently. 



It may be remarked that, in the above extract from 

 Captain Williamson's book, the author, though living in 

 the quarter of the century immediately after the great 

 battle, appeared doubtful as to its precise date, and refers 

 to the latter as " about 1757 " ! Will any officer of Her 

 Majesty's army, writing in 1890 of the Indian mutinies 

 and rebellion, mention them as events which occurred " about 

 1857"? 



Most writers of the past as well as of the present times 

 mention a " royal tiger," as if it differed in some way from 

 others ; has a second variety been seen and described ? 

 Between Benares and Arracan, and from Ganjam to the 

 uttermost parts of Assam, only one kind has ever been met 

 with by me ; nor have I heard any sportsman speak of any 

 other. Of course, with a difference in the habitat, some 

 difference in the build, size, or colour may occur ; it is just 

 possible, also, that the tigers of Central Asia and the Northern 

 territories of China along the Amoor may differ more than 

 this from the Indian variety ; but I do not think any marked 

 difference has been satisfactorily established. It is well 

 known to sportsmen that the tiger of the hills is stouter and 

 shorter than the tiger of the plains ; the tail of the former, 

 too, is shorter in proportion to the length of the body, according 

 to my observation ; but I may be wrong in this conclusion. 

 Mr. J. shot a tiger one evening at the back of the Frontier 

 Police Lines at Rungamuttee, while three of us were holding 

 a committee in them ; this was, according to my ideas, a fine 

 specimen of the hill tiger ; a very stout and powerful beast, 



