St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1891-09-26
A HUNTERS NERVE.
Calmly Facing q Ferocious South
American Tiger.

It was in the state of Mirandea. New
Venezuela It was three o'clock in the
morning, and was with Manuel, the
tiger hunter, on the mountain. After
. half-hour of cautious walking Nam
uel paused at . turn in the narrow
path. and felt rather than saw that
the dawn Of day was at hand. There
was = strange stir in the air. a. though
the feeble breath of life had come
back to the dead and inanimate nature.
Over beyond the eastern mountain tops
the stars were growing pale. The first
faint gray tinge of dawn was coming .
long way of.
Day came slowly. noted this with
surprise, for had any number of times
read descriptions of dawn in the trop-
les wherein it was represented that day
came with . bound out of the blackness
Of the night. Perhaps the writer's of
these descriptions had waited until the
sun had already REDEEMED the eastern
sky before watching for the dawn
From the time that I noticed the frs.
faint gray strcaks in the sky until the
sun was actually shining on the noun
tain tops it was perhaps little more
than an hour. have seen the day
break in the Rocky mountains in the
same length of time, with the only diff
ference that in the tropics the day came
more swiftly after the rosy lights
had come into the sky. Between the
first grays Of the early morning and the
rosy hues of actual day there was little
difference in the Cordilleras and the
Rocky mountains.
Icould have watched the coming day
for another hour, but as soon as it was
light enough to see the surrounding OBJ
iects Manuel carefully chose q spot
which I could occupy during the i'm
pending gladiatorial exhibition. It
was the peak Of . high rock that a.
most overhung the path that he
eventually chose. and with some diff
Guilty climbed to the top of it. Nature
evidently had intended the rock for
some such purpose rs this. for it gave a
rood view of the path for some dis
tance on each side. could easily have
seen any animal walking upon it for
= considerable distance in either di-
rection. There was plenty of evil
dence, too. that the advantage of this
pcak Is . lookout station had been ap-
nreciated and used by other hunters
than man. Indications showed that
wild beasts, presumably tigers, had
crouched there in wait for unsuspcct-
ing prey. This discovery gave me
mild sensation. l might be reasonably
cate from the attack of q tiger in the
peth below. but l hesitated to think
what would be the result If a tiger
came mp and found me occupying his
private personal outlook.
When I was comfortably concealed
behind the rock, although in position
that permitted me to keep careful
watch of the exposed parts of the path.
Manuel disappeared. He was stand
ing BY the base of the rock one mo-
mcut and the next moment he had
vanished. He must have gone like q
aerpent. for heard no sound. Then !
as alone on . tigers favorit0 0resort in
an uuinhabited South American forest
II was hardly . pleasant sensation. cs-
necially Is my revolver seemed to be,
as doubtless it was. a very inadequate
weapon. A suspicion might have
crossed my mind that Manuel had left
me there rs . bait for tiger. but l
would not give it = moments credcnce.
There were noises on the mountain
side BY this time, and some of them
were 80 distinct that could distinguish
them. Small animals were scampcring
about in the underground and birds
were calling in the trees A commo-
tiou among the birds some distance
down the path attracted my zttention.
and wondered If . tiger had stirred
them M, or If Manuel had straycd as
far away as that A few moments
later there was another commotion
= the distance on the other hand of
me. but I gave little heed to it. On
the right t-hand side Of the path small
creature, something like . North
American woodchuck. stopped short in
his leisurely morning walk and shifted
suspiciously at the air. was tO lee
w.rd of him in the light breeze that
had sprung up, and SO he could not
have scented me. He shifted q moment
In the direction Of the first disturbance,
and then suddenly dived headlong into
the undcrgrowth Assuredly there was
something s8 10 windsvard that he was