V] 
THE TIGER 
199 
It was 2 p.M. : hot work for ladies—my wife was 
in the howdah behind me. I confess that I am not 
fond of the fair sex when shooting, as I think they 
are out of place, but I had taken Lady Baker upon 
this occasion at her special request, as she hoped to 
see a tiger. We were passing through some dense 
green tamarisk, growing as close and thick as 
possible, in a hollow depression, which during the 
wet season formed a swamp, when presently the 
elephants began to exhibit a peculiar restlessness, 
cocking their ears, raising their trunks, and then 
emitting every kind of sound, from a shrill trumpet 
to the peculiar low growl like the base note of an 
organ, broken suddenly by the sharp stroke upon a 
kettle-drum, which is generally the signal of danger 
or alarm. This sound is produced by striking the 
ground with the extremity of the trunk curled up. 
I felt sure that a tiger was in this dense covert. 
The question was how to turn him out. 
The tamarisk was about 20 feet high, but the 
stems were only as thick as a man’s arm ; these 
grew as close together as corn in a field of wheat; 
the feathery foliage of green was dark through 
extreme density, forming an opaque mass that 
would have concealed a hundred tigers without any 
apparent chance of their discovery. 
Although this depression was only about 6 feet 
below the general level of the island, it formed a 
strong contrast in being green, while the grass in 
the higher level was a bright yellow. The bottom 
had been swampy, which explained the vigorous 
