Jungle By-Ways in India 



beating elephants were almost touching one 

 another, the tiger's courage failed him — for he 

 was there right enough. He had funked facing 

 the open, and had dashed back, breaking through 

 the line of howdahless elephants. 



Oh, that glorious five minutes ! Worth days 

 of the humdrum routine of life ! 



It is almost impossible to say how a tiger will 

 behave in a beat of this nature, and therein lies 

 the great fascination of the game. 



We had been beating with a line of thirty 

 elephants one day, and had lost two tigers in the 

 morning. Both had sneaked out of the beat up 

 small side ravines, and one of them in spite of 

 stops being placed to prevent him. 



It was a scorching hot April day with a fierce 

 hot wind blowing, and after lunch the line was 

 taken to a beat which was rarely drawn blank if 

 properly worked. The howdahs were placed 

 lining the top of a bank of a small grass-filled 

 nullah, with an 8-foot drop on one side into the 

 nullah bed. I had been allotted the end of the 

 line at a spot where the grass thinned out and 

 disappeared into a patch of forest. Given that 

 the beast did not break near the other guns, I 

 should be certain of a chance, and a good one, 

 of coming to close quarters with ' stripes.' The beat 

 was a difficult one to start, as the jungles on that 

 side were very broad and broken up with ravines. 



For what seemed a very long time I sat in my 



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