lled his tigers without ever really hunting them,
nevertheless it is a most uncertain sport as we were destined to learn. The
tiger is the "Great Invisible"--he is everywhere and nowhere, here today
and gone tomorrow. A sportsman in China may get his shot the first day out
or he may hunt for weeks without ever seeing a tiger even though they are
all about him; and it is this very uncertainty that makes the game all the
more fascinating.

The part of Fukien Province about Futsing includes mountains of
considerable height, many of which are planted with rice and support a
surprising number of Chinese who are grouped in closely connected villages.
While the cultivated valleys afford no cover for tiger and the mountain
slopes themselves are usually more or less denuded of forest, yet the deep
and narrow ravines, choked with sword grass and thorny bramble, offer an
impenetrable retreat in which an animal can sleep during the day without
fear of being disturbed. It is possible for a man to make his way through
these lairs only by means of the paths and tunnels which have been opened
by the tigers themselves.

Mr. Caldwell's usual method of hunting was to lead a goat with one or two
kids to an open place where they could be fastened just outside the edge of
the lair, and then to conceal himself a few feet away. The bleating of the
goats would usually bring the tiger into the open where there would be an
opportunity for a shot in the late afternoon.

Mr. Caldwell's first experience in hunting tigers was with a shotgun at the
village of Lung-tao. His burden-bearers had not arrived with the basket
containing his rifle, and as it was already late in the afternoon, he
suggested to Da-Da, the Chinese boy who was his constant companion, that
they make a preliminary inspection of the lair even though they carried
only shotguns loaded with lead slugs about the size of buckshot.

They tethered a goat just outside the edge of the lair and the tiger
responded to its bleating almost immediately. Caldwell did not see the
animal until it came into the open about fifty yards away and remained in
plain view for almost half an hour. The tiger seemed to suspect danger and
crouched on the terrace, now and then putting his right foot forward a
short distance and drawing it slowly back again. He had approached along a
small trail, but before he could reach the goat it was necessary to cross
an open space a few yards in width, and to do this the a