IV 
THE ELEPHANT 
145 
the top of the steep shoulder of the hill, where 
several of our men were upon the boughs of 
surrounding trees. Bisgaum was in a state of wild 
excitement, and Kerim Bux explained that it was 
impossible to shoot from his back, as he could not 
be kept quiet. Where was the tiger ? that was the 
question. “Close to us. Sahib! ” was the reply; 
but on foot we could see nothing, owing to high 
withered grass and bush. I clambered upon 
the back of the refractory Bisgaum, moment¬ 
arily expecting him to bolt away like a locomotive 
engine, and from that elevated position I was 
supposed to see the tiger, which was lying in the 
bottom of the ravine about 100 yards distant. 
There were so many small bushes and tufts of 
yellow grass that I could not distinguish the form 
for some minutes; at length my eyes caught 
the object. I had been looking for orange and 
black stripes, therefore I had not noticed black 
and white, the belly being uppermost, as the animal 
was lying upon its back, evidently dying. 
The side of the rocky hill was so steep and 
slippery that the elephants could not descend; I 
therefore changed my steed and mounted Demoiselle, 
from the back of which I fired several shots at the 
tiger until life appeared to be extinct. The ground 
was so unfavourable that I would not permit any 
native to approach near enough to prove that the 
animal was quite dead. I therefore instructed 
Bisgaum’s mahout to make a detour to the right 
until he could descend with his elephant into the 
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