d the old Major then informed us that there was good khubber
of tiger in the wood close by.

The trees were splendid specimens of forest growth, enormously thick,
beautifully umbrageous, and growing very close together. There was a
dense undergrowth of tangled creeper, and the most lovely ferns and
tropical plants in the richest luxuriance, and of every conceivable
shade of amber and green. It was a charming spot. The patch of forest
was separated from the unbroken line of morung jungle by a beautifully
sheltered glade of several hundred acres, and further broken in three
places by avenue-looking openings, disclosing peeps of the black and
gloomy-looking mass of impenetrable forest beyond.

In the first of these openings we were directed to take up a position,
while the pad elephants and a crowd of beaters went to the edge of the
patch of forest and began beating up to us. Immense numbers of genuine
jungle fowl were calling in all directions, and flying right across
the opening in numerous coveys. They are beautifully marked with black
and golden plumes round the neck, and I determined to shoot a few by
and bye to send home to friends, who I knew would prize them as
invaluable material in dressing hooks for fly-fishing. The crashing of
the trees, as the elephants forced their way through the thick forest,
or tore off huge branches as they struggled amid the matted
vegetation, kept us all on the alert. The first place was however a
blank, and we moved on to the next. We had not long to wait, for a
fierce din inside the jungle, and the excited cries of the beaters,
apprised us that game of some sort was afoot. We were eagerly
watching, and speculating on the cause of the uproar, when a very fine
half-grown tiger cub sprang out of some closely growing fern, and
dashed across the narrow opening so quickly, that ere we had time to
raise a gun, he had disappeared in some heavy jhamun jungle on the
further side of the path.

We hurried round as fast as we could to intercept him, should he
attempt to break on ahead; and leaving some men to rally the mahouts,
and let them know that there was a tiger afoot, we were soon in our
places, and ready to give the cub a warm reception, should he again
show his stripes. It was not long ere he did so. I spied him stealing
along the edge of the jungle, evidently intending to make a rush back
past the opening he had just crossed, and outflank the line of beater
elephants. I fired and hit