490 



me, I snalch the pen to give you the following hasty and imper- 

 fect description of the business of the day. 



Matters had been thus judiciously arranged: tents were sent 

 off yesterday, and an encampment formed within a mile and a 

 half of the jungle which was to be the scene of our operations; 

 and in this jungle the thickets of long rank grass and reeds are in- 

 many places fifteen feet high. At one o'clock this morning thirty 

 elephants, with the servants, and refreshments of all kinds, were 

 dispatched; at two we all followed in fly-palanquins; at a quarter 

 after four we reached the encampment, and having rested near 

 two hours, we mounted our elephants, and proceeded to the jungle. 



In our way we met with game of all kinds: hares, antelopes, 

 hog-deer, wild boars, and wild buffaloes ; but nothing could divert 

 our attention from the fiercer and more glorious game. 



At the grey of the dawn Ave formed a line of great extent, 

 and entered a small detached jungle. My elephant (sorely against 

 my grain; but there was no remedy, for my driver was a keen 

 spoilsman, and he and I spoke no common language) passed 

 through the centre, but happily no tiger had at that hour nestled 

 there. I saw, however, as I passed through it, the bed of one, in 

 which there were an half-devoured bullock and two human skulls; 

 with an heap of bones, some bleached, and some still red with gore. 



We had not proceeded five hundred yards beyond the jungle, 

 when we heard a general cry on our left of Baug, baug, baug! On 

 hearing this exclamation of Tiger! we wheeled; and, forming the 

 line anew, entered the great jungle, when the spot where a single 

 tiger lay having been pointed, on the discharge of the first gun 

 a scene presented itself confessed by all the experienced tiger 

 hunters present to be the finest they had ever seen. Five full- 



