full view I had the sight on the second stripe behind the shoulder. By a
curious coincidence he stood quite still when he came into my full view,
and, as he was only about twenty yards away, presented a very fine sight.
But I reserved my fire till he had moved forward a pace or two, and then I
fired, and on he bounded. Then followed one of those picturesque,
exciting, and somewhat amusing scenes, which can only occur in tiger
shooting on foot. For the leisurely proceedings of the tiger had given the
beaters time to get to the end of the cover just as I was firing at the
tiger, and as I ran round the hillside to the other side of a ravine which
ran down the hill, they ran forward so rapidly and plunged so suddenly
into the jungle, that the tiger came out just below me. I fired at him,
and so did one or two of the natives who had run up to join me, and the
tiger fell dead in the air in the middle of a long bound. But running and
excitement are not favourable to accuracy of aim, and the tiger, on this
occasion, was struck by only one ball, and, strange to say, in the sole of
the foot, and the only bullet-mark on his body was from my first shot at
him. My account of the incident may be valuable to an inexperienced
sportsman, and illustrates also the peculiar disadvantage of sitting on
the ground, because if the tiger had walked straight up to me, and I had
fired at him in the face, which I should have been obliged to do, he
would, if not killed outright, probably have either gone back amongst the
beaters, or charged me.

I have alluded to my second gun-carrier on this occasion as being a man
who had the greatest power of remaining still under all circumstances, out
shooting, when it was necessary to do so, and I may also mention that he
was a man who combined the greatest coolness with the greatest daring. He
was of a Hindoo peasant family, entered my service as a workman, rose to
be a duffadar or overseer, and for many years has been head overseer on my
coffee estates, and he is as good as a planter as he is as a shikari. I
could give many instances of his cool daring. On one occasion a wounded
tigress--it was the cold weather season, when everything was still green
about the edges of the jungle--went into a ravine which was flanked by a
great bed of ferns about five feet high. The natives looked at this bed
into which the tigress had disappeared with considerable doubt, and one of
them said, "How is anyone to go in here?"