WORK AND SPORT IN THE N.W.P. 89 
becoming scarce, as many as four or five, and 
even more, having been driven out and bagged 
in one day. Of course such slaughter cannot be 
indefinitely repeated, but the tiger is supposed to be 
vermin even when he lives twenty miles from the 
abode of man, and is quite incapable of harming 
him, so that his extinction appears to be a matter of 
time ; for no Government would face the rare oppor- 
tunity which would be afforded for misrepresenta- 
tions by taking steps to protect so interesting a 
beast from extermination. Pity it is that he must 
disappear, and with him one of the greatest charms 
of forest life, and also a form of sport that has been 
not only enjoyable, but beneficial, to hundreds of 
exiles. 
It was at this place that I was able to observe the 
grim defence of an old boar against a tiger, and to 
admire the pluck of perhaps the most courageous of 
all the beasts of the forest ; for here the camp was 
kept awake all night long by the sound of a duel to 
the death which was proceeding a few score yards 
from the tents. There was no mistaking the roars 
of the tiger and the furious grunting of the boar, 
and I think our sympathies were all with the latter ; 
but when dawn broke we found him lying dead in 
the grass, scored all over with wounds ; evidently it 
was not till the tiger had succeeded in leaping on his 
back that the boar had succumbed. No doubt the 
tiger had not come off scatheless ; we found him on 
the summit of one of those water-worn gravel 
hillocks so frequent in this part of the country, and 
unapproachable save by climbing up the loose surface ; 
and having to hurry away, we left him to enjoy his 
