ed, fairly conducted, and
justly administered industries in India. That it may be so is, as I
know, the earnest wish, as it has long been the dearest object, of my
best friends among the planters of Behar.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The tiger.--His habitat.--Shooting on foot.--Modes of shooting.--A
tiger hunt on foot.--The scene of the hunt.-The beat.--Incidents of
the hunt.--Fireworks.--The tiger charges.--The elephant bolts.--The
tigress will not break.--We kill a half-grown cub.--Try again for
the tigress.--Unsuccessful.--Exaggerations in tiger stories.--My
authorities.--The brothers S.--Ferocity and structure of the tiger.
--His devastations.--His frame-work, teeth, &c.--A tiger at bay.
--His unsociable habits.--Fight between tiger and tigress.--Young
tigers.--Power and strength of the tiger.--Examples.--His cowardice.
--Charge of a wounded tiger.--Incidents connected with wounded tigers.
--A spined tiger.--Boldness of young tigers.--Cruelty.--Cunning.--Night
scenes in the jungle.--Tiger killed by a wild boar.--His cautious
habits.--General remarks.

In the foregoing chapters I have tried to perform my promise, to give
a general idea of our daily life in India; our toils and trials, our
sports, our pastimes, and our general pursuits. No record of Indian
sport, however, would be complete without some allusion to the kingly
tiger, and no one can live long near the Nepaul frontier, without at
some time or other having an encounter with the royal robber--the
striped and whiskered monarch of the jungle.

He is always to be found in the Terai forests, and although very
occasionally indeed met with in Tirhoot, where the population is very
dense, and waste lands infrequent, he is yet often to be encountered
in the solitudes of Oudh or Goruchpore, has been shot at and killed
near Bettiah, and at our pig-sticking ground near Kuderent. In North
Bhaugulpore and Purneah he may be said to be ALWAYS at home, as he can
be met there, if you search for him, at all seasons of the year.

In some parts of India, notably in the Deccan, and in some districts
on the Bombay side, and even in the Soonderbunds near Calcutta,
sportsmen and shekarries go after the tiger on foot. I must confess
that this seems to me a mad thing to do. With every advantage of
weapon, with the most daring courage, and the most imperturbable
coolness, I think a man no fair match for a tiger in his native
jungles. There are men now living who have shot numbers o