ng, and declaring that
the tiger was certainly at the bottom. The foolish fellow thought it
might be still alive. We soon disabused his mind of that idea, and had
the dead tiger hauled up to dry land.

Surprised by floods, a tiger has been known to remain for days on an
ant-hill, and even to take refuge on the branch of some large tree,
but he takes to water readily, and can swim for over a mile, and he
has been known to remain for days in from two to three feet depth of
water.

A time-honoured tiger story with old hands, used to tell how the
Soonderbund tigers got carried out to sea. If the listener was a new
arrival, or a _gobe mouche_, they would explain that the tigers in the
Soonderbunds often get carried out to sea by the retiring tide. It
would sweep them off as they were swimming from island to island in
the vast delta of Father Ganges. Only the young ones, however,
suffered this lamentable fate. The older and more wary fellows, taught
perhaps by sad experience, used always to dip their tails in, before
starting on a swim, so as to ascertain which way the tide was flowing.
If it was the flow of the tide they would boldly venture in, but if it
was ebb tide, and there was the slightest chance of their being
carried out to sea, they would patiently lie down, meditate on the
fleeting vanity of life, and like the hero of the song--

'Wait for the turn of the tide.'

Without venturing an opinion on this story, I may confidently assert,
that the tiger, unlike his humble prototype the domestic cat, is not
really afraid of water, but will take to it readily to escape a
threatened danger, or if he can achieve any object by 'paddling his
own canoe.'

CHAPTER XX.

No regular breeding season.--Beliefs and prejudices of the natives
about tigers.--Bravery of the 'gwalla,' or cowherd caste.--Clawmarks
on trees.--Fondness for particular localities.--Tiger in Mr. F.'s
howdah.--Springing powers of tigers.--Lying close in cover.--Incident.
--Tiger shot with No. 4 shot.--Man clawed by a tiger.--Knocked its eye
out with a sickle.--Same tiger subsequently shot in same place.--Tigers
easily killed.--Instances.--Effect of shells on tiger and buffalo.--Best
weapon and bullets for tiger.--Poisoning tigers denounced.--Natives
prone to exaggerate in giving news of tiger.--Anecdote.--Beating for
tiger.--Line of elephants.--Padding dead game.--Line of seventy-six
elephants.--Captain of the hunt.--Flags for signals in the lin