r
we must go into the jungles, where the tall reeds, through which the
tigers roam, are higher than our heads.

[Illustration: "A TIGER HUNT."]

When we are well in the jungle, we must be careful. It is sometimes
very difficult to see a tiger, even if you are quite near to him, for
the stripes on his skin are very much like the reeds and leaves of the
jungle, and we must keep a very sharp look-out, and as soon as we see
one we must be ready with our rifles, for a tiger is very apt to begin
the fight, and he will think nothing of springing on the back of an
elephant and dragging one of us to the ground. Sometimes the elephants
are not used to hunting tigers, and when they see the savage beasts
they turn and run. In that case there is often great danger, for no
one can fire coolly and with certain aim from the back of a bounding
elephant.

If we find a tiger, and we get a good shot--or perhaps many good
shots--at him, and he falls wounded or apparently dead, we must still
be very careful about approaching him, for he is very hard to kill.
Often, when pierced with many balls, a tiger is considered to have
breathed his last, he springs up all of a sudden, seizes one of his
hunters in his great jaws, tears him with his claws, and then falls
back dead.

Hunters accustomed to the pursuit of tigers, always make sure that a
tiger is dead before they come near his fallen body, and they often
put many balls into him after he is stretched upon the ground.

We must by this time be so inured to danger in the pursuit of our big
game, that we will go and hunt an animal which is, I think, the most
dangerous creature with which man can contend. I mean the Gorilla.

This tremendous ape, as tall as a man, and as strong as a dozen men,
has been called the king of the African forests. For many years
travellers in Africa had heard from the natives wonderful stories of
this gigantic and savage beast. The negroes believed that the gorilla,
or pongo, as he was called by some tribes, was not only as ferocious
and dangerous as a tiger, but almost as intelligent as a man. Some of
them thought that he could talk, and that the only reason that he did
not do so was because he did not wish to give himself the trouble.

Notwithstanding the stories of some travellers, it is probable that no
white man ever saw a gorilla until Paul du Chaillu found them in
Africa, where he went, in 1853, for the purpose of exploring the
country which they inhabit.