The line of elephants arrived, and no one was aware that another leopard had been moved. I pointed out the small clump of grass, and ordered an elephant to walk through it. In an instant a leopard bolted, and immediately rolled over like its comrade; but as I had to wait until it had cleared the line of elephants before I fired, it was about 35 yards distant, and although it fell to the shot, it partially recovered, and limped slowly forward with one broken leg, being terribly wounded in other places. It only went about 40 paces, and then lay down to die. One of the mahouts dismounted from his elephant, and struck it with an axe upon the head. This leopard was immediately despatched to camp, and we proceeded to beat fresh ground, as no tiger had been here, but evidently the two leopards had killed the bullock on the preceding night, and nothing more remained. Rosamond had stood very steadily, but she was terribly rough to ride, and the howdah swung about like a boat in a choppy sea. A couple of hours were passed in marching through every place that seemed likely to invite a tiger, but we moved nothing except a great number of wild pigs; a few of these I shot for the Garo natives who accompanied us. At length we observed in the distance the waving, green, feathery appearance of tamarisk, and as the sun was intensely hot, we considered that a tiger would assuredly select such cool shade in preference to the glaring yellow of withered grass. At all times during the hot season a dense bed of young tamarisk is a certain find for a tiger, should such an animal exist in the neighbourhood. The density of the foliage keeps the ground cool, as the sun's rays never penetrate. The tiger, being a nocturnal animal, dislikes extreme heat, therefore it invariably seeks the densest shade, and is especially fond during the hottest weather of lying upon ground that has previously been wet, and is still slightly damp; it is in such places that the tamarisk grows most luxuriantly. We were now marching through a long strip of this character which had at one time formed a channel; on either side the tamarisk strip was enormously high, and dense grass. Suddenly an elephant sounded the kettle-drum note; this was quickly followed by several others, and a rush in the tamarisk frightened the line, as several animals had evidently broken back. We could see nothing but the waving of the bush as the creatures dashed madly past. These were no doubt large pigs, but I felt certain from the general demeanour of the elephants that some more important game was not far distant.