CHAPTEE VII 



THE TIGER 



While wandering about during the montlis of April and 

 May, in the teak forests of the Betiil district, I devoted a 

 day now and then to the sport of tiger-shooting ; and it was 

 the laudable custom of the forest officers to spare, if pos- 

 sible every year, a few weeks during the height of the hot 

 season, for the purpose of making an impression on the 

 numerous tigers which at that time rendered working in 

 the forests and carrjdng timber so dreaded by the natives, 

 and consequently costly to Grovemment. 



Although there is much in the sport of tiger-hunting that 

 renders it inferior as a mere exercise, or as an efEort of skill, 

 to some other pursuits of these regions (for many a man has 

 killed his forty or fifty tigers who has never succeeded in 

 bagging, by fair stalking, a single bull bison or a stag 

 sambar), yet there is a stirring of the blood in attacking an 

 animal before whom every other beast of the forest quails, 

 and an unarmed man is helpless as the mouse under the 

 paw of the cat — a creature at the same time matchless in 

 beauty of form and colour, and in terrible power of ofiensive 

 armature — ^which draws men to its continued pursuit after 

 that of every other animal has ceased to afford sufficient 

 excitement to undergo the toil of hunting in a tropical 

 country. 



It will have been gathered from previous descriptions 

 that the hot season, the height of which is in April and 

 May, is the most favourable time for hunting the tiger. 

 Then the water supply of the country is at its lowest ebb ; 

 and the tiger, being very impatient of thirst, seeks the 

 lowest valleys, where, too, much of the game he preys on 

 has congregated, and where the village cattle are regularly 

 watered. In Central India tigers vary a good deal in their 



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