18 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



Two or three days afterwards Wood shot a good 

 tigress. The bag, therefore, was very evenly 

 distributed on this occasion. 



My next tiger-hunt was in January 1901, in 

 the Patna State, which was, at the time, in the 

 Central Provinces, but has now been transferred 

 to Bengal. I had a female elephant to ride and 

 a good native shikari with me, but no European 

 companion, and the country we were hunting 

 contained buffaloes as well as tigers. The first 

 tiger we heard of was said to have eaten a certain 

 number of bullocks and buffaloes and two men, 

 and the Uriya villagers, who had suffered from 

 his depredations, were naturally very anxious 

 to have him killed. The first bullock we tied out 

 was completely devoured, and the tiger was not 

 in the beat. He killed again the following night, 

 however, and dragged the carcase of the bullock 

 from the road on which it was tied to a place 

 within a few yards of the edge of the jungle in 

 the direction of the village, and there lay up with 

 it. A machan was tied for me, and the beat was 

 lined up in the rice-fields, within a few yards — 

 as appeared from a subsequent examination — 

 of the tiger's resting-place. The first yell given 

 by the beaters evidently startled the tiger, and 

 before the beat had well started I saw him 

 emerging from the jungle on my right at a fast 

 trot. The Stop either did not see him or was 

 seized with panic, as he made no attempt to check 

 him. I turned quickly on the machan and fired, 

 and the tiger broke into a gallop and disappeared^ 

 Examination showed that the shot had passed 

 under the tiger and struck the ground well beyond 



