Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-07-01

district alone one iof these brutes
killed, in short time, 1877 people, and
stopped all traffic for many weeks on
the road from Mooll to Chanda. A
tigress in Chindwarrah slew, according
to native estimates, $50 people in three
years, causing the abandonment of the
villages, and throwing $50 square
miles out of cultivation. Another old
tigress in Kunool carried off sixty four
human beings within nine months,
stopped the post-runners and police
patrols, and scared away the laborers
employed ON public works. One of
his victims was the head constable.
The brute's average allowance seems
to have been one man every three
days. 1t was only by keeping in
numbers together and making horri-
BILE noise with "tomtoms" that travellers
could safely pass that way. At last
broad strip ofjungle was cleared away
from either side the road, and in due
time the beast was hunted down.
In the Bhagalpore district alone of
Lower Bengal as many as ,434 people
we're killed by wild beasts in six years.
During the same period 13,4O1 deaths
from wild beasts were reported for
Bengal Proper, of which 4,2l8 are
ascribed to tigers, 1.407 to leopards,
4.2S7 to wolves, ia to hyenas, and
l05 to bears; the balance being set
down to bears, jackals, buffaloes,
elephants, and mad dogs. On the
other hand, it cost the Government
$4,000 in rewards to secure the de-
struction in the same time Of 1896
wild beasts, Of whom I ,27S were tigers,
1868 lcopards, 1871 bears, and 1888
wolves. In one year the loss of human
life in the Central Provinces amounted
to sos, many of whom were children
! wSile 51S tigers, S95 panthers and
leopards, 534 bears, 467 wolves, and
AIS hyenaS, we're put to death. The
wolves of Oudh in the same year killed
men, 2 women, 73 boys, and so girls.
Each of the other provinces odds its
quota to the butchers bill Of the
numbers Of cattle slain and of the less
entailed on their poor owners no re-
gular estimate can be formed but one
man alone in South ,Canara complained
of having lost 50 head of cattle through
wild beasts Captain Rogers tells of
tiger who killed half dozen in few
minutes, and it is we'll known that
thousands of villagers are continually
reduced to utter poverty, followed by
a long term Of bondage to money
lenders, through the rarages of these
unpleasant ncighbors. The very spread
of cultivation tends to increase the
suffering caused by their neighborhood
In the NeiIghearies, for instance, the
clearing away of jungle for coffee plan
tations drives the wild animals to seek
their prey from the villages at the foot
of the hills On the other hand the
planting Of new and the conservation
of old forests may afford new haunts
or new means Ct living to the beasts of
prey. Superstition also plays no small
part in the maintenance Of these intol-
! cradle scourges.. The Gonds, for in
stance, instead Of mastering in force to
hunt down the tigers who wage war
against them aud their herds, have an
idiotic way of regarding the tiger as
divinity whose wrath it is unsafe to
arouse. If one of them falls prey to
the diyinity's appetite for human flesh,
the rest of the family are forthwith
tabooed as displeasing to the object of
the reyerent dread, and must expiate
their offence by costly sacrifices, which
may leave them penniless, but will re-
store them to their caste-rights.
| The eadmoney granted BY Govern
ment, to the tune of 915,000 year,
tends, no doubt, to keep the nuisance
Of wild beasts in some check. AS
much as hundred pounds has been
| given for the head Of man-eating
| tiger. But the rewards are sometimes
granted on very slight evidence for it
is we'll known that cunning native
will bring up an old head for new
one, or sew tigers skin over the
head of some smaller animal, and thus
cheat credulous or careless official
into passing an unfounded claim. Per-
haps the present scale of rewards
would bear amending, if. as we under
stand, much too little is afforded for
the cubs in comparison with ll.grown
tigers. The quickest way of extirpat-
ing the brutes would be to encourage
the destruction Of young animals by
larger bounty for their heads. Sports
men naturally shrink from attacking
these scourges with other than the
sportsmans usual weapons but even
Captain Rogers in his report avows
himself thorough convert to the use
of traps and other wiles against foes so
widely destructiye.-Fron, the Indian
I, Nail.
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