St. Landry democrat., 1888-08-11

us Engllshmen who come to India do ii
in our early days. but generally give it
up after few trials, with the exception
OF small minority who have the real
sportsman's blood in them. I refer to
hunting On foot, and pursuing the tiger
into his haunts.
''Generally two of us club together,
and hire anywhere from twenty to a
hundred natives, with an old shekarry
Or chief huntsman at the head. The
shekarry leads the party, and directs
its movements and is closely followed
by the hunters, who hold their guns
ready-cocked for shooting. Close be-
hind the hunters are the gun-bearer.
carrying ammunition and extra guns,
and then come the band carrying
gongs, drums, dinner-bells, horns, and
any thing else that will make noise
Then there are singers who throw
stones into the Jungle, spearmen to
keep the line in order, and two or three
active fellows who climb trees in order
to spy out the game.
1.-The procession moves very slowly,
as it is necessary to be cautious in or
der to prevent the escape of the tiger,
and, if possible, save the members of
the party from injury. The danger of
such hunt is, that the tiger may sud-
denly charge upon you, and he is par
ticularly dangerous when he is wounded
and you are following him up.
''Once, two of us were following up
a wounded tiger, and the blood was so
abundant that we all thought the ami
NAL must have bled to death. While
we were standing in a little clearing
debating what to do, the tiger sprang
out of the jungle and charged on my
friend, whom he carried to the ground
instantly. The poor fellow was killed
by the blow, and it was small consola-
ton for me that put bullet through
the tigers skull. The creature meas
ured eleven feet one inch from nose to
tip of tail, and | have his skin now in
my library.
"Another time when | was out in
pursuit of small game, strolled into
the Jungle telling my men to follow a
short distance behind me, and make no
noise as | hoped to shoot some birds by
taking them unawares. But l had no
luck, and after walking fully half an
hour had not succeeded in sighting any
thing. Coming to rocky mound | sat
down, and while reclining there saw an
opening in the jumbled mass of stones
that formed one of the sides.
Naturally enough | wanted to ex-
anime the opening and proceeded to do
so, but the space was so narrow and low
that | could not penetrate more than
few feet. The entrance was, perhaps,
six feet high, but the space narrowed
rapidly and soon became impossible for
me, except on hand and knees. had
no candles or other material for light
ing up the place, and, therefore, could
make no attempt at exploring it any
further.
Wondering how soon my men would
come up, / sat down just inside the en-
trance of the cave and began to plan
matters for my movements as soon as
they should arrive. The day was warm,
was greatly fatigued, and the result
Of my sitting down there and meditat-
ing was that fell asleep.
II had observed traces of the feet of
some animal on the hard earth near the
place where I sat down. but did not
consider them of any consequence, and
1t did not occur to me that the opening
led to the home Of tiger! Tigers
were rare in that region, and l had
not heard of any there for long
while.
s'How long slept don't know, but
probably only for a few minutes, just
1ozen winks and mods to refresh myself,
Is had often taken before. When |
walked | happened to turn my eyes to-
wards the jungle, and the sight that
net them was one well-calculated to
shake mans nerves. Not twenty feet
AWAY was tiger flashing its tail, growl-
ng furiously and preparing to spring
lpon me. The whole situation was ap-
parent at once; had fallen asleep in
he vestibule Of the tigers residence.
had only my gun for protection,
md it was charged for birds, not for
igers.
''Under circumstances like these one
must think and act quickly, and this
vas the case with me. My gun was
of a pattern very quickly
manipulated; the cartridges in the bar
els were charged with shot, but had
ONE ball cartridges in my. pocket, /,
QUICK as a flash | changed one of the
and I hadn't the fraction
4 an instant to spare as the tiger
prang just as brought the gun to my
boulder.
Il couldn't take accurate aim. and he |
vas 80 close that there was no need of !,
/, as he wasn't six feet off when fired.
he ball entered the animals eye and |
'ierced his skull; he fell at my feet, |!
nut not harmlessly. Do you see that |
carr" he concluded, as he barred his !,
I'm and displayed the mark Of q !
49, ~