130 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



probably never seen a human being. It would 

 appear rather as if they hid from the sight of 

 other animals, instinct teaching them that to 

 make themselves conspicuous in the daytime 

 would result in their going without a meal at 

 night. That this is so seems to be borne out 

 by the fact that when either a tiger or panther is 

 met with in one of these distant spots, it evinces 

 no fear of man ; but boldly stares at the intruder, 

 eventually quietly taking itself off. 



In several years of wandering, off and on, in 

 the forests of Burma at all seasons, I only 

 remember to have met tigers twice and a leopard 

 once. On one occasion I was steaming up the 

 Chindwin on a Government stern-wheeler. I 

 was at breakfast at the time, when a shout from 

 a lascar brought me outside. Looking up the 

 river, I saw a large tiger drinking on the bank 

 about 200 yards ahead of us. The steamer 

 was slowed down, and I rushed into the cabin 

 for rifle and cartridges, returning just in time 

 to see the tiger disappear into the dense jungle, 

 the brute having taken alarm at the steamer 

 and the churning of the paddle. Had I been 

 in a country boat I might have got a shot. 



Another time I was following bison when 

 one of the trackers stopped suddenly and said 

 4 thit ' (leopard). There was nothing to be seen 

 — the beast had vanished. But on going some 

 twenty yards or so farther on, we came to a 



