We were camped on the bank of the Ousuree, about ten miles from the village, and passed the night without disturbance.  In the morning, while we were preparing for breakfast, one of the natives went a few hundred yards away, to a little pond near, where he thought it possible to spear some salmon.  He waded out till he was immersed to his waist, and then with his spear raised, stood motionless as a statue for several minutes.  Suddenly he darted the spear into the water and drew out a large salmon, which he threw to the shore, and their resumed his stationary position.  In twenty minutes he took three or four salmon, and then started to return to camp.  Just as he climbed the bank and had gathered his fish, a large tiger darted from the underbrush near by, and sprung upon him as a cat would spring upon a mouse.

Stopping not a moment, the tiger ran up the hillside and disappeared.  I was looking toward the river just as the tiger sprang upon him, and so were two of the natives; we all uttered a cry of astonishment, and were struck motionless for an instant, though only for an instant.  The unfortunate man did not struggle with the beast, and as the latter did not stop to do more than seize him, I suspected that the fright and suddenness of the attack had caused a fainting fit.  I and my Russian companion seized our rifles, and the natives their spears, and started in pursuit.

We tracked the tiger through the underbrush, partly by the marks left by his feet, but mainly by the drops of blood that had fallen from his victim.  Going over a ridge, we lost the trail, and though we spread out and searched very carefully, it was nearly an hour before we could resume the pursuit.  Every minute seemed an age, as we well knew that the tiger would thus gain time to devour his prey.  Probably I was less agitated than the natives, but I freely and gladly admit that I have never had my nerves more unstrung than on that occasion, though I have been in much greater peril.  We searched through several clumps of bushes, and examined several thickets, in the hope of finding where the tiger had concealed himself.  The natives approached all these thickets with fear and trembling, so that most of the searching was done by the Russian members of the party.

Just as we were beating around a little clump of bushes, fifteen or twenty yards across, my companion on the other side shouted: 

“Look out; the tiger is preparing to spring upon you.”  Instantly I cocked my rifle and fired into the bushes; they were so dense that I could hardly discern the outline of the beast, who had me in full view, and was crouching preparatory to making a leap.  I called to my friend to shoot, as the density of the thicket made it very probable that my fire would be lost, by the ball glancing among the shrubbery.  But my friend was in the same predicament, and I quickly formed a plan of operations.

[Illustration:  GENERAL ACTIVITY.]