animals awake from their siesta and stretch themselves and drink. A sudden start and rattle of stones in the bed of the stream revealed that a sambur stag had come to the water and had scented the tiger. He fled up the glen as if the fiend was behind him, throwing back his velvety horns to avoid the boughs. Then a slight crackle of a dead leaf was detected, followed by a scraping, as of claws on a tree in another direction. All round in a circle the tiger seemed to have stalked, to scent for danger before approaching his prey. The intense excitement of those hours, which seemed moments and the moments hours, have left an impression which cannot be effaced, and every incident will come back to the writer's memory, as if it were happening now while the story is being written. How the tiger's presence was felt before he was heard, and heard before he was seen, could only be realized by having had the experience.

When the tiger's great yellow flanks became visible as he moved on through the thicket, it was such a slow, gliding motion that were it not for the black stripes the eye would fail to catch it, and the ear could detect no actual sound. When all object for concealment ceased, and he had satisfied himself that there was no trap, he walked out into the open proudly, with the air of a monarch. But a cruel, ravenous monarch. Terrible in his nature, he seized the poor dead calf and shook it as a cat does a mouse, snarling fiercely in his wrath, and commenced to devour the hind-quarters, crouching low on his belly and crunching savagely, his great yellow eyes glaring with savage satisfaction. His comfortable meal was his last, and three shots finished his guilty career. The first behind the shoulder, when he roared a mighty roar and bit the dust, breaking his claws on the rocks; the second and third, from the double rifle, were

in the neck and head, as a precaution against his getting up again, as tigers have immense vitality, and have been known to come to again after lying apparently dead, and just kill the shikari who ventures too near, upsetting all his calculations. One must feel an awful fool if a tiger escapes for want of a second barrel, and it is a very common story indeed.

It had been a long wait, but caution is the second most important virtue in tiger hunting. A heavy boot, thrown after a sufficient time had elapsed, failing to make him move, it was safe to come down from the tree, and soon the shouts of Jussoo from the valley below, in response to a call agreed upon signalling success, were heard coming nearer. Before half an hour fully twenty natives appeared from the jungle paths, and the tiger was inspected with many 'Wah wahs!' and 'Ram rams!' They almost worshipped the slayer of the terrible manswag as the deliverer of their homes and families from a long-experienced dread. The tiger was carried in triumph to the camp, and the procession along the road received accessions from goodness knows where, as the villages are scattered and some way off on the spurs of the hills. But they had all known of the result by signals from Jussoo, and great was the joy in the whole district. The tiger was a fair-sized male, 9 feet 6 inches long, and had the crooked claw of which Jussoo knew the track. His whiskers were pulled and taken for charms, and next day, when the skin was taken off, his flesh was taken away and divided among the villagers, or sold in the bazaar at Naini Tal, as a charm against tigers, or a medicine to cure deficient nervous energy, and other diseases which would not yield to the treatment of the best hakims. The return to Naini Tal was one of great satisfaction, as the cool climate and congratulations of friends were

properly appreciated after the sweltering heat below. The skin and head, tied to a pole, were borne by shouting natives along the Mall and through the bazaar, amid great rejoicing at the death of the much dreaded maneater.

CHAPTER IV

FOREST SURVEYING

AFTER a time I received from the Lieutenant-Governor the appointment of Forest Surveyor for the North-West Provinces.

The duties of that office were to visit in order the several localities where forests exist, and survey and map out their boundaries and areas, giving careful details of the timber growing in them, and a report as to the quality of the timber, and character of the land it grows on. The scale of the maps was to be one inch to the mile, and schedules were attached to each sheet of twelve miles square, giving average of first, second, third, and fourth class trees per acre growing in the jungle, of the sorts which were valuable as timber of construction, omitting the rest of the trees as not of any economic value.

The hill forests of Kumaon extend over an area of 15,000 square miles of actual forest, situated all over the district, which is about 150 miles long and 100 broad, bounded on the south-west by the plains of the Bhabar and on the north-east by the snowy summits of the Himalayas and Tibet, on the south-east by Nepal, and on the north-west by the Alaknanda, a principal branch of the Ganges. This was a country of considerable extent, almost as large as Switzerland, and containing half a dozen of the highest mountains in the world; the celebrated Gangotri, or sources of the Ganges, the most sacred

place in Hindu mythology, with innumerable minor ranges covered with almost unexplored forest; precipices of fearful height; enormous glaciers, deep valleys, and rushing mighty rivers. There was a peaceable, wellgoverned population, not too numerous; things of interest on every side; and, last but not least, game of all sorts in plenty. Here was a prospect of independent work, entirely suited to the taste of a lover of the forests and the wild beauties of nature. It is generally troublesome for private individuals to get very far in the exploration of the higher hills, owing to the difficulties of transport. Provisions and camp equipage have to be carried on the backs or heads of coolies, who belong to the scattered villages, and have to be taken from their work of cultivation, which they do not like to leave. But they are bound by treaty to supply porters from every village for civil officers travelling on official work, and come more or less cheerfully. No shirking could be allowed to prevent the surmounting of the most unfrequented hills, and every valley and pathless ridge had to be traversed somehow. The instructions were given by the secretary of the North-West Provinces Government, Public Works Department, to the Forest Surveyor every six months, and the report and maps had to be sent in through the Commissioner. So that there was no official interference in the course of the season's operations. Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, R.E., was a kind and approving head of his department.

The climate was always excellent, as one could choose the elevation according to the season of the year, the highest hills in the hot weather, while in the cold there was work in the plains. Naini Tal was the head-quarters during the rains, when the mapping was done. province of Kumaon was the first undertaken.

The