The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-09-07
A TIGER CAGE.

Perovski are almost the only spots on
the whole river where they are any left;
indeed, / might say the only spots in all
Central Asia, except the great jungle of
the Iii, two days journey north of
this"
So spoke Colonel PetroF (the Russian
commandant of the little outpost of
Tchinaz, on the Upper Syr-Daria), to
his excited junior officer, Lieut.. Galkin,
who had made up his mind that the fist
duty of every right-minded officer was
to shoot tiger single-handed, and that
life would be blank to him till he had
done so.
"And what's the best way to get at
them :" asked the younger man, with
flash of excitement on his handsome
face.
"Well, If you're so anxious to make
their acquaintance" said the veteran,
smiling at the lads eagerness, there
are several ways of doing it. First and
foremost, you can just follow the beasts
trail till you come upon him, and then
shoot him down but that's rather dan
gerous, and not very certain either, for
the trails apt to get blurred in among
those big reeds"
"Well?"
Well, secondly, you can drift along
the bank in boat, and fire at 'em as
they come down to drink but that's
not always certain, because, if there's
moon, they see you and run away, and
if there's not, you can't see them at all.
Thirdly, there's the cage"
The cage ?"
"Yes; you shut yourself up in an
iron cage among the reeds, with a big
bit of horse-fesh beside it by way of
bait, and when the tiger scents the meat
and comes after it, you fire at him."
" Capital |" shouted Galkin, with a
loud laugh " that's quite new idea.-
The cage be it by all means"
"Well, wouldn't begin with that, if
were you, my boy" said the Colonel,
gravely, for it's risky business at
best. A tiger-hunt is very good fun so
long as it's you who are hunting the
tiger; but when the tiger takes to
hunting you, it alters the case good
| deal.'
However, Galkin was not to be moved
and daybreak next morning found him
in his cage among the hugh reeds (tall
enough to overtop six-foot grenadier
with his cap on), through which as they
swayed in the morning breeze, he caught
passing glimpse, every now and then
of the broad, shining river, and the little
tumble-down mud novels and clustering
trees on the opposite shore.
The most trying part of an exciting
adventure is the waiting for 1t to begin,
and SO our hero found it, but, luckily,
he had not long to wait The Central
Asian tiger has keen scent for prey of
any kind, and the warning crackle of
the reeds was speedily followed by the
gliding out of q huge gaunt yellow body
straight toward Gall1in's ambush.
Despite his perilous position for the
cage was pretty old one, and it's rusty
bars seemed hardly to be trusted against
the rush of full-grown tiger, Galkin
could scarcely help laughing at this
curious reversal of menagerie rules-the
man in the cage, and the wild beast
walking round it to look at him. But
he was not the man to let either the
joke or the danger unsteady his hand.
He aimed carefully at a vital spot behind
the fore-shoulder, and let fly.
The huge beast leaped high into the
air, rolled over on its back, and, after a
few convulsive kicks, lay dead before
him. Hurrah ! Up sprung Galkin,
quite forgetting the cage in his excite,
ment, and hit his head such a bump
against the bars that for moment he
hardly knew where he was.
The shout was answered by long
snarling cry, and out from the reeds
broke a second tiger, evidently young
one, although quite big enough to have
finished our friend with one bite. Gal
kin felt for his cartridge-pou to re
load for second shot, when, lo M
pouch was to be found. And now to hil
dismay, he perceived that it had been of
when he jumped up, and was lying out.
side the cage, where 1t had rolled over a
slight decent of the land quite out o
his reach.
Here, now, was pretty piece of bust
ness.
But, If the hunter was at a nonplus
the tiger himself seemed to be no lesi
so. This cross-barred machine, with {