Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-19
Killing Tigers with sryebninc.

An English tiger hunter tells the lndlan no
neer how he kills Royal Bengal tigers
l use the old Kentucky pea rife, eighty bore,
which had with me in Texas and Colorado
Since then l got it converted into a breech-
loader and it now takes three and half
drachms Of powder, and hollow picket nearly
three diameters in length, made Of thin steel
and coated with platinum to give II weight and
enable it to take the rifing. There is a small
screw plug in the base, which can be taken out,
The cases, which are very long, and the pickets
| am obliged TO get out from Springfield, Mass las
there are none manufactured in England. Well,
the secret of my caging to a certainty every tiger
hit with a single bullet from this pea rife is
this, that fill up tue hollow in the picket with
nine or ten grains of strychnine, of Scheele's
strength. That is, | reckon, an overdose, as be-
ieve one grain of this strength would kill tiger;
but give him TO the extent the picket will hold
With this bullet so prepared, it does not matter
in the slightest degree in what part of the body
you hit the tiger; all that is necessary is that
the bullet penetrate the skin somewhere, and if
you sit down and smoke your pipe, as gener-
ally do after firing, you will find the animal
lying dead in from ten minutes to an hour or so,
according, | fancy, as to whether the picket
breaks up a large or a small vein. When found
the tiger is frequently as stiff as if he had been
shot TWO or three days previously. II is very
curious to watch the effects OF the strych-
nine, which appears to vary good deal.
On one occasion | came on a tiger that
uau q re " minutes before WOUNDED IN the 0eS0y
part of the hind leg; he was standing notion
less, with his legs spread out like tour-legged
stool, and painting like an express steam engine.
did not mind going up to within few Yards
OF him, as had my three-harTel breech-lOader
in my hand, but he, nevertheless, took no notice
| of me, although he must have seen me. | then
| went nearer, but he never moved, and at last,
| not wishing to keep the beast in pain, went up
| into a tree Just above him, and punched a neat
| hole in his skull with solid picket from tue
| Kentucky.
On several other occasions have seen a tiger
| which | had wounded walking through the
| jungle apparently all right, but falling into
| convusions whenever twig or branch of a
| tree which he was passing under touched his
back To show you how infalbe is this meth
cd OF killing tiger, once fired at a tiger dash
ing across me al full tear, and made sure had
missed him; but the same evening, after had
| returned from shooting, a cowherd reported a
| dead tiger in the jungle where had been. |
instantly repaired to the spot by torchlight for
| fear some Overs might eat him, and at once
| saw il was the tiger | had fired at. After at
| least half an hours search for a bullet
mark. we at last found the picket
| imbedded 10 one of the joints of
| his tail, within about one foot from
the tip Of it. | learned this idea from au ele-
| plant hunter | met at Ntetwe, in southern cen
trail Africa. He told me he has frequently
bagged elephants by this means at from four to
five hundred yards, but he used a very heavy
rifle, and | fancy his shells would have held
twenty or twenty-five grains at least. | had no
opportunity OF trying it there myself, as had
no means Of obtaining strychnine. or course,
| if You take to my plan you must do as do
with every animal you bag, that is, collect dry
| wood and burn him the moment his skin is off
albeit to the great disgust of the villagers,
many Of whom are as fond Of tigers flesh as he
| sometimes is Of theirs.