64 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



the late unhappy accident to Colonel Hutchinson, the Revd. E. Jenkins 

 Bowen informs me the tiger charged from a distance of 30 yards, 

 four guns in a line, but separated by an interval of two or three yards. 

 Seven barrels were discharged into this tiger whilst he was charging — 

 one by Colonel Hutchinson as the tiger was about to strike Mr. Bowen 

 with his claws, and another barrel by Mr. Bowen, at a distance of 

 three feet from the muzzle of his rifle, when the tiger was actually 

 seizing or had seized Colonel Hutchinson ; but in spite of this the 

 tiger not only shook and mauled his victim, but carried him off 

 some ten yards before he was killed. In this case the beaters were 

 not with the guns : Mr. Bowen informs me he sent back all the 

 beaters, thinking the occasion to be one in which no beaters were 

 required. This, however, must have been an exceptionally fiendish 

 tiger. 



To those who shoot alone, of course, the danger of following up 

 is greater, as ifc is impossible for a man, who has been seized by a 

 beast, to fire his rifle. I have done a great deal of my shooting 

 alone, but in following up, I have generally been able to get a sepoy, 

 or some one who knows, at any rate, how to aim and fire a gun, 

 to accompany me. Such a man may be very useful at a pinch 

 and his services should be always requisitioned. A shikarry, who 

 carried my second rifle and who just knew how to load and fire 

 from what I taught him, saved me from a mauling once; and on 

 another occasion one nearly blew my brains out at a very ticklish 

 moment ; but " this is another story," as Rudyard Kipling would say. 

 I think everybody should go tiger-shooting with a companion, but 

 of course this cannot always be, and my advice is to avail yourself 

 of the services of some one who can fire a gun for you, even if that 

 some one has but a little knowledge of the use of firearms. I 

 often think the danger of following up a wounded beast is a little 

 over-rated. Most sportsmen speak and write as though every wounded 

 beast charged at once and never shrank from turning in his presence. 

 My experience is that wounded tigers, panthers, and bears are often 

 arrant cowards and curs. It is only the exceptional ones that are 

 brave enough to make good their charge, and I do not think young 

 sportsmen should be discouraged from following up on foot when 

 every care and precaution possible is taken. Every now and then 



