20 THE TIGER. 



between two bends of the stream, when I saw a branch move and heard a rush about fifteen 

 yards in front of me. Thinking it was a deer, I walked slowly on, and found the fresh tracks 

 of a large Tiger, with the water still oozing into them, but I could see nothing more of him. 

 On one or two occasions at night I heard Tigers close to my tent, and once sat up in bed 

 with my rifle cocked, so close had the brute approached ; but he seemed to dread the fires 

 which I kept burning all night, and I heard him walk away. Another evening I waited for 

 a Tiger by a pool of water ; he did not appear, but as I was walking home in the dark we 

 distinctly heard him snuffing within thirty yards of us. I sat down on a stone and tried to 

 make him out ; but though I knew the very bush he was under — a large ' mdljan ' creeper — 

 I could not see him. 



In 1865 I went out after Tigers in the Bijnour district. On the 18th of April I shot a 

 Tigress at Burrapoora, and on the following day I shot a Tiger ; neither of them gave 

 particularly good sport, though the Tiger made one fine charge at me, which I stopped 

 with a bullet in the shoulder. For several days afterwards I got nothing, but missed one 

 Tigress. 



On the 27th, having sent away all the Elephants except one, which I rode, I proceeded 

 to beat some ground which I had hunted the previous day, in hopes of getting a few Hog 

 Deer. Going over a nearly bare and most unlikely-looking plain, I had sat down in the 

 howdah, when, on reaching some thin but longish grass, a Tigress suddenly sprung up. 

 Before I was ready she was out of shot, but soon brought up in a thick clump of grass. I 

 went after her, and found her crouched ready for a spring. I fired, and her head dropped 

 between her fore-paws. Seeing a wound in the nape of her neck, and the blood streaming 

 over her face, I thought she was done for, so would not give her another bullet, but went in 

 search of men to assist in padding her. Having taken off the howdah, I returned on the 

 pad, and was surprised to find that the Tigress had moved into the grass. I felt sure that 

 she was past doing mischief ; so, as I was anxious not to spoil her skin, I slipped off the 

 Elephant and walked into the grass. I found the Tigress sitting up, but evidently quite 

 stupid, so I fired a bullet into her chest from a distance of two or three yards. She dropped 

 to this, and we pulled her out by the tail. After some minutes, as she still continued to 

 breathe, I fired a bullet with a small charge of powder into her chest, and thought for a 

 moment that I had finished her ; to my amazement, however, she got on her legs and began 

 to crawl away, creating a panic among the bystanders. This would not do ! so I had to 

 shoot her through the heart. I then found that the wound on her neck was an old sore 

 occasioned by fighting ; my first bullet had struck below the eye, merely splintered the bone 

 and gone out again without doing much harm ; it had luckily stunned her. We now padded 

 her, and took her home. 



On the 29th of May I was encamped at Rikki Kase, on the Ganges, in the north-east 

 corner of the Doon. I had shot an Elephant the day before, and this morning I sent out 

 my first gun-carrier (a hill man, Moti by name), in company with two villagers, to cut out 

 the teeth. About twelve o'clock one of the villagers came in with a story of having met 

 with a Rogue Elephant, and feared that he had caught the other two men. I rather laughed 



