214 Wild Beasts 



or charge the elephants, and perish amid the wildest 

 display of fury and desperation. Finally, as it sometimes, 

 though rarely happens, the first stir in the jungle sends 

 him off by an unguarded path across ridges and plains to 

 some distant lair; and the hunt for that day is bootless. 



Tiger-shooting is never without danger to the sportsman. 

 Many a man has been clawed out of a tree and killed, 

 or caught before he could get put of reach. Elephants 

 have been pulled down, or the howdah ropes have broken 

 and precipitated its occupants into the tiger's jaws. More- 

 over, nine elephants out of ten are not stanch, they be- 

 come panic-stricken and bolt ; in which event the risk of 

 being dashed to death against a tree is greater than that 

 of any other fatal accident that is likely to occur. 



Most accounts of tigers are confined to their connec- 

 tion with mankind ; but if this be the more important, it 

 certainly is not the more general relationship. Out of the 

 large number born every year (though not in the same 

 season, for these animals pair irregularly) few come in 

 contact with human beings. They prey upon the larger 

 animals of their respective provinces, both wild and do- 

 mestic, but, of course, chiefly upon the former. In this 

 way they are of positive benefit to the agricultural class. 

 Baldwin, Sanderson, Leveson and others, whose observa- 

 tions made upon the spot, and with the best opportunities 

 for knowing the truth in this matter, are not likely to be 

 incorrect, state that but for the aid rendered by tigers in 

 keeping down the numbers of grain-eating species, the 

 Indian cultivator would find it almost impossible to live. 

 No doubt the same condition of things prevails in other 



