Tiger.Shooting 273 



J. and Captain F. both agreed with them, and after 

 a consultation we sat down and had tiffin. A shikari 

 picked up my first bullet, so that I must have hit him, 

 as he disappeared, with my second shot. We sent the 

 beaters home, and having given the tiger two hours, 

 by which time we felt sure he would be dead, we 

 proceeded with three or four shikaris to follow up the 

 trail. The two others did try to persuade me not to 

 come, but it was hardly likely that I should fall in with 

 their views. 



There are places, I believe, where tigers may be shot 

 on foct with comparatively little risk ; there are men 

 who have made a practice of shooting them thus ; but 

 still more have paid the penalty of their rashness, and 

 those who have survived will usually be among the first 

 to point out the danger. 



Therefore here I may remark that our action was 

 that of fools. Expecting to find a corpse, we followed 

 the tracks quietly for about two hundred yards, and 

 then came upon a place where the tiger had evidently 

 lain down and lost much blood. They cling to life 

 with extraordinary tenacity. Again we followed the 

 tracks, and in the marshy ground the fresh fugs (foot- 

 marks) had water still oozing into them. We stole 

 in line through the trees and grass up to some tall 

 reeds when our hearts stood still. 



There was a spring : with an infuriated roar, and 

 bounding through the cover with open mouth, his tail 

 lashing his sides, his whole fur bristling, the tiger 

 charged straight at us ! 



18 



