VI 
THE TIGER 
235 
If game had been plentiful this would have been 
a charming hunting-ground, but, like most portions 
of the Central Provinces, the animals have been 
thinned by native pot-hunters to an extent that will 
entail extermination, unless the game shall be 
specially protected by the Government. When the 
dry season is far advanced, the animal can only 
procure drinking water at certain pools in obscure 
places among the hills ; these are well known to 
the native sportsman, although concealed from the 
European. On moonlight nights a patient watch is 
kept by the vigilant Indian hunter, who squats upon 
a mucharn among the boughs within lo yards of the 
water-hole, and from this point of vantage he shoots 
every animal in succession, as the thirst - driven 
beasts are forced to the fatal post. 
Nothing is more disappointing than a country 
which is in appearance an attractive locality for wild 
animals, but in reality devoid of game. I make a 
point of declining all belief in the statements of 
natives until I have thoroughly examined the 
ground, and made a special search for tracks in the 
dry beds of streams and around the drinking-places. 
Even should footprints be discovered in such spots, 
they must be carefully investigated, as the same 
animals visit the water-hole nightly, and in the 
absence of rain, the tracks remain, and become 
numerous from repetition; thus an inexperienced 
person may be deceived into the belief that game is 
plentiful, when, in fact, the country contains merely 
a few individuals of a species. It must also be 
