Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-11-11
A LEOPARD HUNT.
A Thrilling Story Of the Indian
Jungles.


Jungles.
1t was my good fortune, a great
many years ago, to be cautioned at
Julbarri. | say "good fortune" for
so | considered it; but | am afraid, if
you had asked at our mess for votes as
to whether | ought to qualify the word
fortune with the adjective "good" or
bad, " | should have got very few to
vote for my word. Good fortune
considered it, nevertheless; for / was
an ardent sportsman; Julbarri was al
most untried ground; and the neigh
boring jungles abounded in game of
many kinds, among which the rhi-
noceros, the tiger and the leopard
were by no means few and far be-
tween. And yet l can not deny that
for any one who was not sportsman,
Julbarri was about as slow station as
could be picked out in all the length
and breadth of our vast Indian empire.
1t was situated in an out-of-thc-way
corner of Bengal; and there was nc
large station within a couple of hun.
bred miles of us where a man with SO,
cial and gregarious tastes could 90 for q
few days to get rid of the oft-told tales
and well thrashed-out politics of the
limited circle of our small mess-table.
Julbarri was, alas, a singlc-corps sta.
ton, and except civil officer or two
the whole society consisted of the gal
liant British officers of the distinguished
Seventy-sixth native infantry; nice
set of fellows enough, ] allow; but
still the best Of listeners mustin time
grow inattentive to Smiths ideas or
the comparative merits of Arab and
English horses; and it is difficult tc
wage any real warfare with Jones as
he challenges you for the bundreti
time to defend Lord Coughs tactics a
Chlianwalla.
At the time of which / write our so
ciety was at peculiarly low ebb. Tn.
drill season was over, the hot weather
was coming on and the leave season
had begun. There was so little worl
to be done that our Colonel hat
taken pity on our isolation, an,
had been unusually, perhaps almos
unauthorizedly, liberal in the mat
ter of leave; and our mess, small
enough at its BEST had dwindlcd an,
dwindled, until now not more thai
half dozen unfortunates dali
stretched their legs beneath its well
spread mahogany. For me, the ap
preaching heat had no terrors, tn
smallness of our society no ennui, anC
the prospect of escape from Julbarr
no charms; for the beginning of TIL,
hot weather is the very time when tn
best shooting can be obtained, and
had long been watching the drying IL
of the grass in the jungles, and ha,
been looking forward to the tim
when we might start tiger with som
chance of bagging him, There wa
one thing in. which we were particu
larly fortunate; we had attached /
our regiment nine elephants as par
of our regimental transport. l nee
scarcely say that it was not long be
fore we had the elephants and thei
mahouts (drivers) thoroughly traine
for shooting. The largest elephant
we trained to carry our howdahs, an
the smaller we used to form a line t
beat the jungles and drive out tn
game, With these elephants we ha
lots of fun, and there were few week
after the shooting season began
which some of us did not 60 out tw
or three times We generally took
in turns; four of us went out, and tw
remained behind to look after the reg
ment and the station.
We kept three or four shikare,
(native hunters), who were constant
going about the villages and iungl,
within radius of six or seven miles
environments; and rs soon as the
heard of a tiger having killed bu
lock or any other animal, or as soc
as they discovered the fresh footmarl
of any animal worth going after, tn,
would come in and give the khU6b
news); and then those whose turn
was would send the elephants al
their arms on towards where the gan
had been seen, and would follow ther
selves on horseback as quickly as pc
sible. The best kind of khab6er w
when a BULLOCK or any other large al
NAL had been killed. The tiger usus
" prowls around some village or son
place where cattle is paStured and Ike
for the night; and when he sees his o
portunity. win spring on some unfol
innate animal which has got separat,
from the rest of the herd, or has I
manned out too late in the jungl
needless of the herdsman's call HON
viii Kill it with blow of his paw, al
drag it into some neighboring jung
thicker and denser than that imm
diately around the village.
Nothing shows more the marvelo
strength possessed by the tiger tn;
the way in which he carries his victi
away. remember the first time | W
shown where a tiger had dragged
fUll-grown bullock. Icould not belle
it possible; and it was not until aft
we had killed the robber-only an {
dinary-sized tigreSs- and | had csI
fully gone over on foot the grOm
where she had dragged her prey, Ii