156 



TWO YEARS IN" THE JUNGLE. 



I thought I -would like to be a little above him, if possible, so as 

 to get a better view of his face, and be more certain of hitting the 

 brain. I spun my theories very finely, and all I asked was a chance 

 to give tliem a tri^d. 



"We often tried to follow up the " pugs " we found in the forest, 

 and it was in this way I finally made the acquaintance of " my 

 first tiger." It was during one of my fever-spells, too, when I was 

 feeling rather low-spirited. I had been seven weeks in the ^ills, 

 hunting constantly when not down with the fever, but had killed 

 neither elephant nor tiger, and was beginning to thiuk I never 

 would. I had shot nothing for several days, and consequently there 

 was no meat in camp. The old women grumbled, the little children 

 cried for it, and, in fact, I wanted some fresh venison myself. 



On that particular day, I had an attack of fever due at 2 p.^r., 

 but I thouglit I could stroll out and shoot an axis deer before it 

 came on. It happened that three of my men had been sent away 

 on various eiTands, and there remained in camp only Pera Vera, 

 my second tracker, afterwards my head man, Naugen, a very quiet 

 but courageous young fellow, and a small boy. I took along these 

 three for general pui-poses, my little Maynard rifle for the deer, 

 and my No. 16 shot-gun, loaded with bii-d-shot, for jungle fowl. 

 Not a very heavy "battery," certainly, when compared with the 

 formidable array of double rifles from the -i-bore, throwing a 4- 

 ounce ball, down to the double .577 Express rifle as the least 

 deadly weapon which every genuine English sportsman in India 

 possesses and carries with him when after big game. It takes 

 twenty-nine of my Maynai'd bullets (calibre .40), to make a pound. 



We hunted all the forenoon, and found a herd of axis deer 

 feeding in a glade, but I had not enough energy to jnake a suc- 

 cessful stalk, and so that chance was lost. In fact, I did not care 

 much whether school kept or not. 



We strolled through the Government Forest until nearly noon, 

 when, just as we were about returning to camp, we heai'd a fearful 

 growling and roaring a few hundred yards in advance, which set 

 us instantly on the qui-cive. We hurried in the direction of the 

 sound, which continued at intervals for some minutes. I said, 

 " Tiger, Vera ? " and he repHed : " No, sahib, panther. Shall we 

 go for it ? " " Of course," and on we went. 



Presently we heard trumpeting and branch-breaking half a mile 

 beyond us, and then Vera said the low roaring, or gi-owling, noise 

 had been made by the elephants. On our way toward the ele- 



