116 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



a quick snap shot, hitting the tigress in the loins, as after- 

 wards was proved, but inflicting only a flesh wound of no 

 severity, and only calculated to aggravate a temper already 

 arrived at boiling point. Acknowledging the shot with a 

 savage growl the tigress passed on, rendering it necessary for 

 J. and myself to push on ahead again promptly, to cut off her 

 retreat, and this we did at our best pace outside the cover, 

 and took up new positions three or four hundred yards in 

 advance of the last. 



I had B. in the " khawas," or after-seat of my" howdah," 

 as, feeling unwell, he had exchanged places with my long- 

 legged Sikh orderly, the latter mounting the pad on B.'s little 

 female elephant, from which it was his custom and choice 

 to shoot in preference to a " howdah," the animal being a 

 particularly easy and staunch one, and her driver one of the 

 very best in Assam. 



When the line had advanced about half-way between our 

 last and present positions, a terrible uproar commenced. W. 

 and F. were in howdahs, near the two flanks of their line, 

 which had advanced thus far without any incident ; but now 

 up sprang the tigress, and bounded upon the elephants, 

 clawing the shoulder of one, biting the hind leg of another, and 

 uttering all the time hoarse, guttural sounds terrible to 

 hear, and utterly demoralising both elephants and "Mahouts"; 

 finally, she seized B.'s pet mount by the head and brought 

 her down on her knees, knocking the driver off on one side, 

 and my orderly on the other, and to her the tigress clung 

 tooth and nail for some moments. 



By this time the beating line was utterly broken and 

 routed ; some elephants were already flying across the open, 

 others, clubbed together, were screaming and trumpeting in 

 the utmost alarm, and quite beyond the control of their 

 drivers, whose opium-sodden nerves were wholly unequal to 

 emergencies of this sort. W.'s elephant had naturally become 

 unsteady in the midst of the confusion, while F.'s was in 

 full flight ; accordingly for some minutes the tigress was 

 mistress of the situation, and not a shot was fired at her. 



