Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1885-02-18
KING OF THE JUNGLE,

KING OF THE JUNGLE.
h correspondent of the London TEL
graph gives graphic description of
tiger shooting in India. There are two
principal ways in Southern India of
destroying the jungle monarch. One is
with beaters and elephants gathered in
array to drive the game from his cover
into the open; and the other method
Is sitting up all night over "kill" Il.
g., dead COW or goat struck down by
The tiger, and thus patient ly waiting
until he comes to finish the carcass,
when at least one good shot is certain.
The first of these processes is never
adopted in jungle tracts, simply because
the thickets are so dense and vast that
the quarry might travel all day at his
best speed without once showing him
self. The second, a more sure but less
exciting style, was the one adopted
and carried out with much good luck
in the instance described
Toshoot big game requires much care,
time and expense, in none of which are
the planters able to be lavish. Conse-
quently they do their shooting when and
where they can, coming upon sambur
here and Thereon sitting up for night
in tree over the dead body Of cow
which some prowling tiger has slaugh-
tered. 1t was for such purpose, says
the correspondent, that once started
to make moonlight expedition to a
patch of tangled jungle which crowned
the rocky summit of ii high hill over
looking our coffee gardens.
At this spot, only eight hours before,
herd of the smooth-coated Indian
kline had been feeding under care of a
native shepherd boy, when, not dream
ing of any lurking foe, and intent only
on the succuleht spear and lemon
grass, young heifer had strayed from
her fellows, and passing along the
edge of the shola was sprung upon and
killed outright, the herd boy and his
charges flying for their lives down the
mountain side to the homestead. 1t
usually falls to the lot of Englishmen
to avenge such forays upon the tiger
that makes them, and, the news hav-
ing been brought in, myself and a
comrade forthwith summarily con-
demned to death the striped terror of
the jungles, and agreed to meet at
night and ourselves execute the SEN
tence.
AS darkness settled on the little en-
canlpment my friend and myself, un-
der the guidance of an agile old low
land shikaree. took our way through
the dense black jungle, tramping in
and out of the water courses which
intersected our path to the foot of the
mountain. For little time we walked
in silence, smoking and enjoying the
cool of the evening, while our guide
stole on before us lightly and silently
as a wrath, creeping round the tree
trunks and picking his path through
the carpet of falel leaves without
making the least noise to betray his
movements. After time the ground
began to slope upwards, and we were
breasting a steep ascent of the precip-
itous hill, sometimes on hands and
knees; but the top once reached We
were amply repaid for our exertion by
the !oveliness of the scene at our feet.
Moonlight in India renders beautiful
the most commonplace spots on the
face of the globe. Below us. and ex-
tending as far as the eye could reach,
spread the great ownerless jungle of
one of the wild st regions of Lower
India, mighty tract of virgin forest,
expanding on all sides in deep green
undulations the ranks of its mighty
army of giant trees, broken only by a
patch or two of bare rock here and
there, or the serpentine course of a
river that ran brokenly under the
moonlight, now widening into gilt
tering silent pool, and anon weaving a
narrow thread of silver under the
shadow of the trees. Not sound
could be heard from the edge of the
rocky plateau where we stood leaning
on our guns, except the deep belling
note of a sambur deer echoing up from
the valley, and making the succeeding
silence seem even yet more deep.
For some minutes we drank in the
fresh, cool air of the mountain top,
then, in obedience to the impatient
gestures of the shikaree, proceeded
upon our march to clearing some
couple of hundred yards further along
the ridge, making as little noise a'
possible, for we were now in the enc
my's territory. The place where th'
kill had taken place was wonderful!
"tigerlsh" one-a grassy level of few
hundred yards, fringed on the uppe
side by a long strip OF thick jungl'
which ran over the brow of the hill
into the neighboring valley, and bisect
ed by Il deep stony nullah, higl
banked, and doubtless filed by
foaming torrent in the wet season, bu
now boasting only the smallest trickl
of white water, finding its way ami
a disproportoaately large bed CT san
and loose powders. Proceeding eau
tiously along in the deep gloom;of tn
| h,n,,la wn soon uaw tho lead bOdy n