The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-10-17
Tiger-Hunting in NepauI.


 l are marshalled before the tents and W, , mount and stow away our parapherna lla Of guns, rifles, ammunition, water
 skin, tea-bottle, a book perhaps, a gi gantic double-lined umbrella to be helt
 over us by the attendant in the back
 seat, and native blanket, folded as 4
 cushion now. but to be unfolded and
 thrown around us should the wild bees
 attack; that is the simple kit of him
 who cares not for luxuries. Half a
 mile from our camp We enter a stretch
 or grass in which it would be hopeless
 to LOOK for tigers, and our forty ele-
 phants are arranged in line in order to
 peat for game of a less ambitious kind.
 The order to advance is given, and I
 sound on dog-whistle the signal of
 general shooting." The mahouts,
 thoroughly alive to the fact that tigers
 are not likely to present themselves,
 keep their beasts in rank so regular
 that no likely patch of cover shall be
 passed unbeaten; and we are off.
 Now from one howdah, now from an-
 other, anon from two or three howdahs
 simultaneously guns and rifles are
 fired as birds and beasts rise or break
 before us. Now falls a black partridge, now peacock comes to earth with all his panoply of gorgeous plumage, now | a hog-deer or a cheetful dies; and so our death-dealing line moves on. broken only when, for few minutes l ono o1pnhoot oto t., ,l
 or other game too heavy to be lifted by the elephants trunk, and handed Cor trunked to the mahout for safe keep ing in bag. Other wild things fall in this improvised battue; swamp part ridge Qncorrectly styled chikore), hares. and, raised out of a bit of marshy ground, a snipe. But all these smaller creatures albeit useful for our commissariat, and especially for the standing stewpan are insignificant by comparison with splendidly headed sambhur. That gives a glory to our bag that outshines all else. The killing of that noble stag is a fortunate as well as brilliant achievement; for ordina- rily the sambhur only exhibits himself when the shikari being directed to re- serve his fire for tiger, may not shoot him.
 We have done fairly well in that strip of grass, and now proceed to beat the dry course of forest stream, in some parts of which there is cover of grass below shade from the overhanging trees. Here We may, with luck and proper strategy, rouse a tiger; conse quently more careful tactics have to be adopted. Three of our guns are sent as stops to advanced posts up the null lah, whitherward they make their way oy forest routes; one remains to drive along the nullah bed, he being flanked on either hand by beating elephants that shall keep such line as circum- stances and the mahouts' sense of hon. or Ca dubious quality) may permit. Upon all is laid the injunction that there shall be no shot fired save at ti- | ger, panther or bear.
 So for some three furlongs the main | line Wends it's way up and along either | bank of the nullah, what time the stops move forward to head the driven quar- ry. None of the smaller denizens of the woodland rises or runs unassailed bv him who holds the pass. Still, for many minutes is the forest silence un- broken by report of firearm or other sound, save those which the heavy- footed elephants evolve. Suddenly the howdah-bearing behe- moth of the nullah, dashes her trunk against the ground with resounding noise, and forth from out of a dense srass-patch a tiger dashes, is seen in ,lme, and sorely wounded as it mounts he nullahs bank. Untouched by bull ct, that tiger might have disappeared n the leagues of forests that hereaway sXtend on three sides; being hit it urns in it's course and springs upon he elephant in the nullah bed some eet below it. reaches the pad, and ,lings there Now, if that elephant would but stand for a matter of ten seconds, the lger would receive it's coup de grace rom him who rides in the howdah. 3ut the intelligence of Motimohul does lot grasp the situation; it only rises to he occasion sufficiently to move her to 10 that which, under the circum- stances, is the worst thing to be done 'he curls her trunk up to set that out 'f the way of tiger that is nowhere Vlthln reach of it, and bolts blindly. The tiger drops to the ground, shaken Lnd doubtless puzzled, and the curtain lrops on act i. Fortunately tiger badly hit is gene ally a tiger bagged, and this one is in nat case. Motimohul is pulled up in omethlng within a quarter of a mile, fter several intellectual efforts to mash her howdah among the trees; ne line of elephants, which has broken D Tn disorder, is rallied; the stops ome Tn from the front, and we, with uch orderly arrangement as may be, etrace our steps. We beat the cover I the nullah and it's banks with scrup- lous attention to every thicket that nay hold the tiger. By dint of much 2rclble language in the vsrnacular of country that has a peculiar potency vocabulary, by dint of lavish prom e Of backsheesh as well, our mahouts Q their duty to some extent-and with lccess; the tiger rises from out of it's 'assy refuge, roars, and charges-to III, pierced by half a dozen bullets | \