198 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
escape if the management is good, and the patience 
of the hunters equal to the occasion. 
I must give every credit to the Rajah Suchi 
Khan for this virtue, and for the perseverance he 
and his friends exhibited in working for so many 
hours in the burning sun of April to so little purpose. 
There was very little game upon the islands near 
Dhubri beyond a few hog-deer and wild pigs, and it 
appeared mere waste of time to wander in a long 
line of beating elephants from sunrise till the after¬ 
noon with scarcely a hope of tigers. However, upon 
the second day, when our patience was almost 
exhausted, we met a native who declared that a 
tiger had killed one of his cows only two days before. 
Taking him as a guide, he led us about two miles, and 
in a slight hollow among some green tamarisk we 
were, after a long search, introduced to a few scat¬ 
tered bones, all that remained of the native cow 
which had been recently killed, and the skeleton dis¬ 
located by jackals and wild pigs. Unless the tiger 
had been disturbed there was every chance , of its 
being somewhere in the neighbourhood ; we there¬ 
fore determined to beat every yard of the island 
most carefully, although it extended several miles in 
length, and was about one mile in maximum width. 
The line was formed, but no scouts were throwm 
forward, nor were any precautions taken ; it was 
simply marching and counter-marching at hazard. 
Hours passed away and nothing was moved to break 
the monotony of the day but an occasional pig, whose 
mad rush for the moment disturbed the elephants. 
