262 
YERTEBRATA. 
very interesting description of the power and dexterity of the elephants in overthrowing trees to 
make a road : 
" On clearing the wood," he says, " we entered an open space of marshy grass not three feet 
high ; a large herd of cattle were feeding there, and the herdsman was sitting singing under a 
bush, when, just as the former began to move before us, up sprang the very tiger for whom our 
visit was intended, and cantered off across a bare plain dotted with small patches of bush-jungle. 
He took to the open country in a style which would have more become a fox than a tiger, who 
is expected by his pursuers to fight and not to run, and as he was flushed on the flank of the line 
only one bullet was fired at him ere he cleared the thick grass. He was unhurt ; and we pursued 
him at full speed. Twice he threw us out by stopping short in small strips of jungle, and then 
heading back after we had passed ; and he had given us a very fast trot of about two miles when 
Colonel Arnold, who led the field, at last reached him by a capital shot, his elephant being in fa]! 
career. 
"As soon as he felt himself wounded, the tiger crept into a close thicket of trees and bushes, 
and crouched. The two leading sportsmen overran the place where he lay, and as I came up I 
saw him through an aperture rising to attempt a charge. My mahout had just before, in the 
heat of the chase, dropped his ankors, or goad, which I had refused to allow him to recover, and 
the elephant being notoriously savage, and further irritated by the goading he had undergone, 
became consequently unmanageable ; he appeared to see the tiger as soon as myself, and I had 
only time to fire one shot when he suddenly rushed with the greatest fury into the thicket, and 
falling upon his knees nailed the tiger with his tusks to the ground. Such was the violence of 
the shock that mj servant, who sat behind, was thrown out, and one of my gims went overboard. 
The struggles of my elephant to crush his still resisting foe, who had fixed one paw on his eye, 
were so energetic that I Avas obliged to hold on with all my strength to keep myself in the 
houdah. The second barrel, too, of the gun, which I still retained in my hand, went oif in the 
scuffle, the ball passing close to the mahout's ear, whose situation, poor fellow, was any thing but 
enviable. As soon as my elephant was prevailed upon to leave the killing part of the business 
to the sportsmen,, they gave the roughly used tiger the coup-de-c/race. It was a very fine female, 
with the most beautifal skin I ever saw." 
An English gentleman who was present, gives the following account of a hunting-party of the 
Nawab Asuf-ud-Dowlah. After describing the immense cavalcade of the nawab, he says : 
"Tlie first tiger we saw and killed was in the mountains. We went to attack him about noon; 
he was in a narrow valley, which the nawab surrounded with about two hundred elephants ; we 
heard him growl horribly in a thick bush in the middle of the valley. Being accustomed to the 
sport, and very eager, I pushed in my elephant ; the fierce beast charged me immediately ; the 
elephant, a timid animal, turned tail, and deprived me of the opportunity to fire. I ventured 
again, attended by two or three other elephants ; the tiger made a spring, and nearly reached 
the back of one of the elephants on which; were three or four men ; the elephant shook himself 
so forcibly as to throw these men ofi" his back, and they tumbled into the bush ; I gave them up 
for lost, but was agreeably surprised to see them creep out unhurt. His excellency was all this 
time on a rising ground near the thicket, looking on calmly, and beckoning to me to drive the 
tiger toward him. I made another attempt, and with more success ; he darted out toward me 
on my approach, roaring furiously and lashing his sides with his tail. I luckily got a shot and 
hit him ; he retreated into the bush, and ten ©r twelve elephants just then pushed into the 
thicket, alarmed the tiger, and obliged him to run toward the- nawab, who instantly gave him a 
warm reception, and Avith the assistance of some of his omras, or lords,, laid the tiger sprawling 
on his side. A loud shout of ' Wha ! wha F proclaimed the victory." 
This is hunting on a grand scale, but it is altogether insignificant in comparison with the hunts 
of the Chinese emperors in their Tartar provinces. These serve to exercise the troops in winter, 
and are of great antiquity. They were practiced by Genghis Khan, and are still continued. The 
emperor commands the huntsmen to trace out a vast circle of perhaps thirty miles in circum- 
ference. The ofiicers then station their troops, inclosing it around ; the soldiers begin their 
march to the sound of martial music, and continue gradually to advance toward the centre, keep- 
