the roar of
the tiger in his own domain, and I must confess that my sensations
were not altogether pleasant. We set about collecting sticks and what
roots of grass we could find, but on the sand-flats everything was
wet, and it was so dark that we had to grope about on our hands and
knees, and pick up whatever we came across.

With great difficulty we managed to light a small fire, and for about
half-an-hour were nearly smothered by trying with inflated cheeks to
coax it into a blaze. The tigers continued to call at intervals, but
did not seem to be approaching us. It was a long weary wait, we were
cold, wet, hungry, and tired; F., the cause of our misfortunes, had
taken off his saddle, and with it for a pillow was now fast asleep. H.
and I cowered over the miserable sputtering flame, and longed and
wished for the morning. It was a miserable night, the hours seemed
interminable, the dense volumes of smoke from the water-sodden wood
nearly choked us. At last, after some hours spent in this miserable
manner, we heard a faint halloo in the distance; it was now past
eleven at night. We returned the hail, and bye-and-bye the peons
returned bringing a boatman with them. The lazy rascals at the ghat
where we had proposed crossing, had gone home at nightfall, leaving
their boats on the further bank. Our trusty peons, had gone five miles
up the river, through the thick jungle, and brought a boat down with
them from the next ghat to that where we were.

We now warily picked our way down to the edge of the bank. The boat
seemed very fragile, and the current looked so swift and dangerous,
that we determined to go across first ourselves, get the larger boat
from the other side, light a fire, and then bring over the horses. We
embarked accordingly, leaving the syces and horses behind us. The
peons and boatman pulled the boat a long way up stream by a rope, then
shooting out we were carried swiftly down stream, the dark shadow of
the further bank seeming at a great distance. The boatman pushed
vigorously at his bamboo pole, the water rippled and gurgled, and
frothed and eddied around. Half-a-dozen times we thought our boat
would topple over, but at length we got safely across, far below what
we had proposed as our landing place.

We found the boats all right, and the boatman's hut, a mere collection
of dry grass and a few old bamboos. As it could be replaced in an
hour, and the material lay all around, we fired the hut, which soon