122 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



missed the neck, therefore, and hit her well forward upon 

 her shoulder, a mortal wound, but not such as to disable her 

 instantly. The report of my gun was echoed by a terrific 

 roar of rage and pain, and the tigress at one bound alighted 

 on my right, grazing my right thigh ; then, rearing upon her 

 hind legs, she was about to seize me with her teeth, when 

 my plucky follower discharged both barrels of the second gun 

 slap into her face, and dodged aside. With another frightful 

 growl the tigress bounded on, striking out with her left paw 

 and arm, the right hanging broken and disabled, blinded by 

 the flash and smoke close to her eyes. In this manner she 

 dashed on a short distance, and then turning, she crouched as 

 if contemplating a second attack, but before it could be de- 

 livered, I stepped down upon the ground and put one last 

 remaining bullet into the centre of the broad, white breast, 

 exposed to my aim at a distance of thirty yards, and rolled 

 her over, gasping and struggling in the death throes ; a few 

 minutes more, and her limbs were straightened out and she 

 gave up the ghost. 



I attribute my escape unscathed in this instance to two 

 circumstances under Providence ; first, that the tigress's right 

 shoulder was so completely smashed, that she was unable to 

 strike me with it on alighting on my right ; and next, the 

 courageous behaviour of Doolap, who by firing into her face, 

 blinded and so disconcerted her as to prevent her from seizing 

 me with her teeth, as she most assuredly would have done. 

 Had Doolap bolted, as nineteen out of twenty men of his 

 kind would have done, my shooting days had ended then. 

 Strange as it may appear, both barrels fired by my gunbearer 

 missed clean, for although almost touching her face, the latter 

 had not a scratch upon it. 



This was a slim young tigress, nine feet in length, wearing 

 a bright sleek skin. She had wandered away seven or eight 

 miles from any heavy coverts, and was on a grand tour when 

 daylight surprised her in the open country. She was one of 

 a family of five, of which I had already accounted for the 

 mother, a brother, and a sister ; the sire alone remaining. 



