CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 6. GARNIYORA. 
261 
tiie desert waste around us. We stopped near two or three of these green tufts, which generally 
surrounded a lodgment of water, or little pond, in the midst of the sand. 
" The way in which these ferocious animals are traced out is very curious, and if related in 
England would scarcely be credited. A number of unarmed, half-naked villagers, go prying 
from side to side of the bush, just as a boy in England would look after a stray sheep, or peep 
after a bird's nest. Where the jungle was too thick for them to see through, the elephants, 
putting their trunks down into the bush, forced their way through, tearing up every thing by the 
roots before them. About four miles from our tents we were all surrounding a bush, Avhich 
might be some fifty yards in circumference — our all including William Eraser, alone upon his 
great elephant, Mr. Barton and myself upon another equally large, Mr. Wilder upon another, and 
eight other elephants, with horsemen at a distance, and footmen peeping into the bushes. Our 
different elephants were each endeavoring to force his way through, Avhen a great elephant with- 
out a howdah on his back, called ' Muckna,' put up, from near the center of the bush, a royal 
tiger. In an instant Eraser called on.t, ' Now, Lady H., be calm, be steady, and take a good aim ; 
here he is !' I confess, at the moment of thus suddenly coming upon our ferocious victim, my 
heart beat very high, and for a second I wished myself far enough off; but curiosity, and the 
eagerness of the chase, put fear out of my head in a minute; the. tiger made a charge at the 
Muckna, and then ran back into the jungle. Mr. AVilder then put his elephant in, and di'ove 
him out at the opposite side. He charged over the plain away from us, and Wilder fired two balls 
at him, but knew not whether they took effect. The bush in which he was found was one on 
the west bank of one of those little half-diy ponds of which I have spoken. Mr. Barton and I 
conjecturing that, as there was no other thick cover near, he would probably soon return, took 
our stand in the center of the open space ; in a minute the tiger ran into the bushes on the east 
side ; I saw him quite plain ; we immediately put our elephant into the bushes, and poked about 
till the horsemen, who were reconnoitring round the outside of the whole jungle, saw him slink 
under the bushes to the north side ; hither we followed him, and from thence traced him, by his 
growling, back to the outer part of the eastern bushes. Here he started out just before the 
trunk of our elephant, with a tremendous growl or grunt, and made a charge at another 
elephant further out on the plain, retreating again immediately under cover. Eraser fired at 
him, but we suppose without effect ; and he called to us for our elephant to pursue him into 
his cover. 
" With some difficulty we made our way to the inside of the southern bushes ; and as we were 
looking through the thicket, we perceived beau tiger slink away under them. Mr. Barton fired, 
and hit him a mortal blow about the shoulder or back, for he instantly was checked, and my 
ball, which followed the same instant, threw him down. We two then discharged our Avhole 
artillery, which originally consisted of two double-barreled guns, loaded with slugs, and a pair of 
pistols. Most of them took effect, as Ave could discover by his wincing, for he Avas not above ten 
yards from us at any time, and at one moment, Avhen the elephant chose to take fright and turn 
his head round away from the beast, running his haunches almost into the bush, not five. By 
this time William Eraser had come round, and discharged a few balls at the tiger, which lay 
looking at us, grinning and growling, his ears thrown back, but unable to stir, A pistol fired by 
me, shattered his lower jaw-bone ; and immediately, as danger of approaching him was now over, 
one of the villagers with a matchlock went close to him, and applying the muzzle of his piece to 
the nape of his neck, shot him dead, and put him out of his pain. The people then dragged him 
out, and we dismounted to look at him, pierced through and through ; yet one could not con- 
template him without satisfaction, as we were told that he had long infested the high road, and 
carried off many passengers. One hears of the roar of a tiger, and fancies it like that of a bull ; 
but in fact it is more like the grunt of a hog, though twenty times louder, and certainly one of 
the most tremendous animal noises one can imagine." 
Captain Mundy gives us the following spirited description of a tiger-hunt in Avhich he was 
engaged. The parties found immense quantities of game, wild hogs, hog-deer, and the neilghi : 
they however strictly abstained from firing, reserving their Avhole battery for the nobler game of 
which they were in pursuit. They had to pass through a thick forest, and the narrator gives a 
