VI 
THE TIGER 
189 
and their neglected countries will be absorbed in the 
progressive extension of colonial enterprise. 
I believe there are very few tigers to be found at 
the present time in the islands or “churs” of the 
Brahmaputra, and although I never had the good 
fortune to know the country when it was described 
to me as “ crawling ” with these animals, I look back 
with some pleasure to my visit in 1885, when through 
the kindness of Mr. G. P. Sanderson, the superin¬ 
tendent of the keddahs, I was supplied with the 
necessary elephants. 
The Rajah of Moochtagacha, Soochikhan (or 
Suchi Khan), had started from Mymensing with 
thirty-five elephants, and he kindly invited me to 
join him for a few days before I should meet Mr. 
Sanderson at Rohumari, about 38 miles below 
Dhubri, on the Brahmaputra. I had a scratch pack 
of twelve elephants, including some that had been 
sent forward from the keddahs, and others kindly 
lent by the Ranee of Bijni. These raised our num¬ 
ber into a formidable line, excepting one huge male 
with long tusks belonging to the Bijni Ranee, who 
was too savage to be trusted with other elephants in 
company. This brute, as is not uncommon, combined 
great ferocity with extreme nervousness. He had 
just destroyed the howdah, which was smashed to 
atoms, as the animal had taken fright at the crackling 
of flames when some one had ignited a patch of long 
grass in the immediate neighbourhood. This had 
established an immediate panic, and the elephant 
bolted at full speed, destroying the howdah utterly 
