This reminds me of another anecdote. Miss D., the sister of the doctor at Balasore, was out riding a short time since; a gentleman of her acquaintance was with her. They were moving slowly along, when suddenly they heard a crackling of the branches by the roadside, and the next instant an enormous tiger sprang into the middle of the lane, just in front of them. The horses appeared paralysed; they could not move, but stood trembling in every joint. The tiger turned round, glared upon them, opened his mouth wide, and gave that horrible ya a-a-a, then made a spring, bounded into the jungle on the other side, and disappeared. The tiger which they brought in the other day measured ten feet six inches in length, and one foot two inches round his ankle. This species possesses enormous strength; a single blow from his paw is sufficient to crush a man's skull into one frightful mass. The adjutant of the 8th Bengal Native Regiment told me of a case which he had seen. A tiger seized a large English bullock, tossed it over his shoulders, and then sprang at one bound over a fence several feet in height: so you may easily imagine that a wild tiger is not a very pleasant companion. We had a sad loss the night before last. I have already mentioned our beautiful little antelope, which used to come and lie at my feet while I was writing. The other night I heard him give a faint scream, and hastened to see what was the matter; he had been bitten by a cobra, and was dead in ten minutes. Poor little fellow! I could have cried,--my wife _did_. I have seen many, but never knew one so tame before. I doubt whether any of the servants had dry eyes as its body was thrown into the river. The bite of the cobra causes the body to swell to a frightful size. The other day my wife was walking in the garden, when a large cobra glided past her; she called some of the men, who soon killed it, but it was too large to put into a bottle. A gentleman, happening to call just then, asked me whether I had seen the poison. I said, "No." He took the head between his fingers and squeezed it in such a way as to open the mouth. In the upper jaw were two very large white fangs, corresponding as it were to our eye-teeth. As he squeezed with more force, a tiny drop of perfectly transparent colourless fluid issued through the point of each fang--these were drops of venom that pass into the wound. The gentleman who showed me this was a medical man, and he said that he would not for a lac of rupees have the half of one of those drops get into a cut in his finger.