TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



I have had no experience with cordite rifles, but I 

 believe they require very careful treatment which would 

 be a serious drawback in wild country where weapons are 

 often subjected to very severe usage. Nevertheless, these 

 rifles, as with all things new, are probably being largely 

 used by the modern big-game hunter, and, for all I know, 

 may possibly be superior — bore for bore — to those I have 

 described ; but if so, they must be extraordinarily efficient 

 weapons of destruction. 



****** 



I will now resume my narrative, which, I fear, I have 

 too long neglected, and I ought perhaps also to apologize 

 for this long digression, because, except to sporting readers, 

 the preceding pages of this chapter must necessarily make 

 dull reading ; but I have always held that a work which 

 purports to be a book on sport should be instructive as 

 well as entertaining, if only for the reason that it is as 

 likely to be read by budding sportsmen thirsting for know- 

 ledge as by those who have passed their lives in the pursuit 

 of big game. 



Not that I am suggesting that the knowledge derived 

 from my own experiences of big-game shooting can compare 

 with those of such past masters in the art as the two great 

 sporting writers whom I have quoted, for such is very far 

 from my intention. At the same time, I may say, without 

 fear of contradiction, that I have had exceptional advan- 

 tages, in the matter of opportunities for Judging of the 

 merits of sporting weapons of all kinds and of studying 

 the habits of most wild animals which come under the 

 definition of big game. 



I was also specially fortunate in having as my mentor 

 for some years that prince of sportsmen. Colonel Probyn, 

 under whom, as I have already stated, I served during the 

 earlier period of my Indian career, and whom I eventually 

 succeeded in his dual appointment of Bhil Agent and Tiger 

 Slayer, when, having reached the age of fifty-five, he was 

 obliged by the rules of the Service, to retire. 



One of his last official acts before retiring was to pass 

 a strong recommendation to the Government that I should 

 be appointed to succeed him, and thus, despite my youth 

 and comparative inexperience, obtained for me the 

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