TSE SOTAL TIGER OF BENGAL. 8T 



gotten the tullets, as I thought was the case in 

 his excitement, and pulled the triggers of toth 

 barrels ; the result was the same— the powder was 

 bad. The tiger was now close on my elephant, 

 when D. and H. to my left hit him hard and turned 

 him in their direction ; as he went along the hank 

 D. rolled him over like a hare with a bullet through 

 the back. He picked himself up and staggered 

 down into the bottom of the ravine, where we all 

 followed and emptied our barrels into him. It was 

 beautiful to see him roll over ; but I almost pitied 

 the brute as he staggered down the side of the 

 ravine, and saw him -crouching in the agonies of 

 death, game to the last, and glaring savagely at us 

 as he received the coup de gr&ce. We left him lying 

 there, for in the meantime another tiger had been 

 put up and seen by B. on the other side. I now 

 examined into the cause of my gun's misfortune, 

 and found that the chuprassey had just commenced 

 a new flask of Pigou's powder, which had been 

 either damp or was bad from age. I loaded three 

 or four barrels with it, and found that it did exactly 

 the same each time ; it exploded, but with almost no 

 report, and with barely force enough to send the 

 bullet out of the gun. On examining the grains of 

 powder I found that they had lost the shiny glazy ap- 

 pearance of good powder, and were agglomerated 

 together in little lumps. This was one of the lessons 

 a sportsman has to learn — ^look to your powder ! The 

 same mishap will not, I think, occur to me again. 



