In fastening dead game to the pad of the carrying elephant great care is necessary.  Some elephants are very timid, and indeed all elephants are mistrustful and suspicious of anything behind them.  They are pretty courageous in facing anything before them, but they do not like a rustling or indeed any motion in their rear.  I have seen a dog put an elephant to flight, and if you have a lazy hathi, a good plan is to walk a horse behind him.  He will then shuffle along at a prodigious pace constantly looking round from side to side, and no doubt in his heart anathematising the horse that forces the running so persistently.

The present method of roughly lashing on dead game anyhow requires altering.  Some ingenious sportsman could surely devise a system of slings by which the dead weight of the game could be more equally distributed.  At present the dead bodies are hauled up at random, and fastened anyhow.  The pad gets displaced, the elephant must stop till the burden is rearranged; the ropes, especially on a hot day, cut into the skin and rub off the hair, and many a good skin is quite spoiled by the present rough method of tying on the pad.

One day, in taking off a dead tiger from the pad, near George’s bungalow, the end of the rope (a new one) remained somehow fixed to the neck of the elephant.  When he rose up, being relieved of the weight, he dragged the dead tiger with him.  This put the elephant into a horrible funk, and despite all the efforts of the driver he started off at a trot, hauling the tiger after him.  Every now and then he would turn round, and tread and kick the lifeless carcase.  At length the rope gave way, and the elephant became more manageable, but not before a fine skin had been totally ruined, all owing to this primitive style of fastening by ropes to the pad.  A proper pad, with leather straps and buckles, that could be hauled as tight as necessary—­a sort of harness arrangement, could easily be devised, to secure dead game on the pad.  I am certain it would save time in the hunting-field, and protect many a fine skin, that gets abraded and marked by the present rough and ready lashing.

It is always dangerous to go too close up to a wounded tiger, and one should never rashly jump to the conclusion that a tiger is dead because he appears so Approach him cautiously, and make very certain that he is really and truly dead, before you venture to get down beside the body.  It is a bad plan to take your elephant close up to a dead tiger at all.  I have known cases where good staunch elephants have been spoiled for future sport, by being rashly taken up to a wounded tiger.  In rolling about, the tiger may get hold of the elephants, and inflict injuries that will demoralise them, and make them quite unsteady on subsequent occasions.

I have known cases where a tiger left for dead has had to be shot over again.  I have seen a man get down to pull a seemingly dead tiger into the open, and get charged.  Fortunately it was a dying effort, and I put a bullet through the skull before the tiger could reach the frightened peon.  We have been several times grouped round a dying tiger, watching him breathe his last, when the brute has summoned up strength for a final effort, and charged the elephants.