The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-11-03
A LEOPARD HUNT.
A Thrilling Story Of the Indian
Junglea.


It WAS my good fortune, . great
.maay years sago 70 bc cautioned at
JulbasrL I~say good fortune" for
so considered It; but l sm afraid, IL
you had asked at our mess for votes as
10 whether ! ought 70 qualify the word
fortune with the adjective good" or
dad" I should have got very few to
vote ~ my word. Good fortune I
considered 1t, nevertheless; for l was
an ardent sportsman; Julbarri was al
most untried ground; AMI the neigh
boring jnngles abounded In game Of
many kinda among which tho rhi-
noccras, the tiger and the leopard
were b no means few and far be-
tween And yet I can not deny that
for any one who was not sportsman,
Julbarn was about IS slow station as
could b picked out In all the length
and breadth Of our vast Indian empire.
1t was situated In an out-of-the-way
corner Of Bengal; and there was no
large saation within . couple of hum
-drod mls q - whoro snaa with -.
cial and gregarious tastes could 70 lor .
few dsJs to get rid Of the oft-tod tales
aud we'll thrashed-out politics Of the
limited circle OF our small mess-tab
JrlbarSi was. alas . single-corps sta
ton, and except civil officer or two
the whole society consisted Of the gal
liant British officers of the distinguished
6eventy-sixth native infantry; q nice
set Of fellows enough, l allow; but
still'the best Of listeners must in time
grow mattcntive 10 Smiths ideas on
the comparative merits of Arab and
English horses; aud it is difficult to
wage any real warfare with Jones as
he challenges you for the hundreth
time TO defend Lord Coughs tactics at
Chilianwalla.
At the time OF which write our so.
ciety was at peculiarly low ebb The
drill season was over. the hot weather
was coming on and tho leave season
had begun. There was SO little work
to be done that our Colonel had
taken pity on our isolation. and
had been unusually. perhaps almost
Enthusiastically, liberal in the mat
ter Of leave; and our mess, small
enough at its best, had dwindlcd and
dwindled, until now not more than
half a. dozen unfortunates daily
stretched their legs beneath Its well
spread mahogany. For me- the ap
preaching heat had no terrors, The
smal!ness Of our society no cnnui. and
the prospect Of escape from Julbarr
no charms; for the beginning of the
hot weather is the very time when thu
best shooting can be obtained. and
had long been watching the drying uI
of the grass in the jungles, and had
been looking forward to the time
when We might start tiger with some
chance of bagging him. There was
one thing in which we were particu
larly fortunate; we had attached t.
our regiment nine elephants as par
Of our regimental transport. l neet
scarcely say that it was not long be
fore We had the elephants and theil
mahouts (drivers) thoroughly trained
for shooting. The largest elephant,
we trained to carry our howdahs, ant
the smaller we used to form line t.
beat the jungies and drive out the
game. With these elephants We hac
lots Of fun, and there were few week,
after the shooting season began il
which some Of Us did not 60 out tive
or three times We generally took i
in turns; feur of US went out, and tive
remained behind to look after the regi
ment and the station.
We kept three or four shikarees
(native hunters), who were constant,
going about the villages and iungle
within radius Of six or seven miles O.
environments; and as soon rs the,
heard of q tiger having killed bull
lock or any ether animal, or as sool
as they discovered the fresh footmark
of any animal worth going after. the,
would come in and give the khubbet
(news); and then those whose turn
was would send the elephants an,
their arms on towards where the gam
had been seen, and would follow them
selves ON horseback as quickly as pos
sible. The best kind Of khubber wa
when . bullock or any other large ami
NAL had been killed. The tiger usual
ly prowls around some village or som,
place where cattle is pastured and KEEP
for the night; and when he sees his op
portunity, viii spring ON some unfori
unstc animal which has got separste,