132 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



As rapidly as was possible, a hundred or more men were 

 collected, with whom we proceeded to the field into which the 

 body had been carried, and which we beat in line from end to 

 end, without discovering a trace of the tigress, or her victim, 

 except his waist cloth. A hundred yards beyond this field, 

 was another overgrown with thorns and tamarisk, the tangled 

 grass in it standing as tall as a man's head ; this patch we re- 

 solved upon burning, the north breeze blowing favourably 

 for that purpose. Accordingly while a few men climbed the 

 two or three stunted trees growing close by, I took my stand 

 with the two gun- bearers, facing the south-east corner, or 

 that nearest the heavier jungle bordering the river, con- 

 cealed and protected in some degree by a small mimosa bush 

 upon a mound of earth, and there waited to measure my- 

 self with the tigress, when she should issue from the burning 

 grass, to retreat into the tree covert. But we were again 

 doomed to disappointment, for although the fire burnt briskly 

 and, leaping from bush to bush, roared and crackled in a very 

 satisfactory manner, it passed over the entire field without 

 any animal, other than a brace of jackals, showing itself. 

 Walking over the charred roots and stumps, we discovered 

 the skull, the hands and feet, and part of a leg of yesterday's 

 victim, not together, but scattered about as if the jackals 

 had been at work for some time ; the tigress, therefore, after 

 taking her fill, had left the ground early last night, to take 

 her water in the river, and was now safe from pursuit. 



The moon being near the full, we determined upon sitting 

 up to watch some path more frequented by the tigress than 

 others, and after a consultation with the native officials con- 

 nected with the Salt Agency, and with their ready assistance, 

 a " machan " or platform was constructed among the branches 

 of a young " peepul " tree (Ficus religiosus), growing at the 

 corner of a tank, containing the only pure and sweet drink- 

 ing water for some distance around. The tree grew on a 

 bank three or four feet above the level of the fields, and 

 although too low and too thinly furnished with leaves to 

 afford security from a tiger's spring, or complete concealment, 



