160 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
height and size can be fully admired. In grass and 
foliage only glimpses of his tawny hide are visible, 
and it does not seem as if he stood a foot higher 
than an ordinary table, though as long as one that 
would seat many persons in comfort. We had 
leisure to admire this tiger as he boldly approached 
—indeed, we let him come too near, with the result 
that we had to take a facing shot as he stood and 
stared suspiciously. He left, showing certain signs 
that he was not badly hurt, and in his hurry stumbled 
over a sloth-bear in his path. What actually hap- 
pened to this unfortunate animal is unknown, but 
his roars of rage re-echoed through the forest long 
after the tiger’s footfalls had died away, until 
Abdul’s reproachful voice was heard asking why we 
had fired at a common bear. He was delighted 
when assured this was not the fact. 
The next morning showed a perfect piece of 
tracking that lasted for nearly two hours, till we 
arrived at a muddy pool in the forest encircled 
with a ring of light green but heavy grass. As 
we approached ahead of the trackers, the mahout 
pointed to the black tuft of a tiger’s tail protruding 
from the grass, and no time was lost in getting 
Abdul to mount the elephant at my back. We 
proceeded to visit the water, so as to find from the 
tracks whether or not the tiger were disabled, but 
had no time to carry out our intentions; for the 
beast appeared on the high bank above us about 
20 yards away, and looked decidedly threatening as 
he turned toward us. The principle of the efficacy 
of first blow is nowhere better exemplified than in 
tiger-shooting, and this one answered to the shot 
