TIGERS AND TIGER-SHOOTING. 99 



if the sportsmen, knowing their business, will send down one 

 or more of their best and most powerful elephants to beat 

 thoroughly the bed and sides below in line with the rest 

 beating the jungle above. Another cunning trick is to sink 

 the whole of the body and head in water where weeds and 

 lilies grow thickly, and to remain thus perfectly still with 

 only the nose and eyes exposed till the elephants have all 

 passed on, and then, slinking back, to make off at speed. 



I have never known an instance of a tiger concealing itself 

 among the branches of a tree when hard pressed ; but it seems 

 probable that a light and active animal, if sorely beset among 

 the undergrowth of a grove, such as one of mango trees, 

 would climb into a place of concealment among the foliage 

 of the upper branches ; and the finding of tigers upon trees 

 during inundations, as well as on other occasions, is by no 

 means a rare occurrence. Of course if boughs growing low 

 facilitate an ascent, even large and heavy tigers may mount 

 trees occasionally, but without such facilities it is very 

 doubtful whether such beasts could climb a tree at all. 



A very cunning tiger may get behind the line of elephants, 

 and follow it if unable to break cover and escape undetected ; 

 in short, there is not a wile that may not be practised by one 

 which has been once already hunted and fired at ; the sports- 

 man, therefore, should neglect no precautions nor omit to 

 beat thoroughly every patch of covert, no matter how small 

 or insignificant. If a strip of jungle show fresh foot-prints, 

 a recent kill or other sure sign, but no tiger be roused and 

 viewed at the first or even a second, beat, let the elephants 

 thrash it out diagonally from side to side, so that the long 

 furrows made by them in the beats from end to end may be 

 crossed by transverse ones, and the ground laid bare ; more- 

 over every bunch of grass and every little bush should be 

 trodden down or passed through by one or more elephants ; 

 and lastly every drain or little s watercourse should be care- 

 fully searched. 



The close vicinity of a tiger is almost always signalled 

 by a good and experienced elephant, either by a blow on the 



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