106 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
tiger is mortally wounded, he will often rush away 
with tremendous bounds, and then return in his 
tracks, suddenly falling dead. The tiger whose 
skull measurements have been given under No. 4, 
when shot, dashed into dense grass, appearing at 
each bound well above it; then turned, and came in 
the same manner directly towards where I was 
concealed, and at the-last leap lost his balance in 
mid-air and fell headlong almost at my feet. It 
was a magnificent spectacle, but it was hardly 
realized till later that the grass was 10 feet high, 
and almost concealed the approaching elephant. 
Another, a full-grown tigress, literally shot through 
the heart, ran about 60 yards, and sprang at a cliff 
full 18 feet in perpendicular height, hung with her 
fore-paws clinging to its edge for the fraction of a 
second, and then fell in a limp mass on the ground 
below. It very rarely happens that a tiger is killed 
outright save by a fortunate shot in the head. 
However severe the wound, even if the main 
arteries of the heart are severed, he will go for some 
distance, generally at full speed, before subsiding. 
On the other hand, if the injury is slighter he will 
soon break from a gallop into a trot, and then into 
a walk, and you may hear him growling savagely as 
he retires. 
If the tiger has not been killed outright, it will be 
best to follow up the trail in the early morning 
while it is still comparatively fresh. The method 
I employed with success was to put two armed 
trackers to follow the trail, and place myself, 
mounted on an elephant, between them and the 
tiger, searching all cover and likely places before 
