The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-22
TALES OF TIGER HUNTING.
How the Biggest Tiger in India Was
Caught.
One Of Barnum's Agents Relates His
Experiences in the Jungle-Differ-
ent Modes of Hunting the Tiger.
Men Carried Away bv the Beasts.

ent Modes of Hunting the Tiger.
Men Carried Away bv the Beasts.
J. B. Gaylard inthe Times Democrat.
81 see that William X. Vanderbilt,
with his bonny yacht Valiant, has arrived
at Calcutta and is the guest Of my young
friend, the rajah of India. The press dis
patches further state that the male
portion of Valiant's passengers, consist
ing Of Ogden GRlet, Gouverneur Norris
Robert Osgood and other New York
swells, will go hunting for the festive
! tiger among the islands of the delta of
the Gauges, while the ladies will remain
at Calcutta and enjoy the hospitality of
of the native princesses. The hunt, of
! course, will be conducted under
the personal direction of the
raja who will thus endeavor
to repay Mr.. Vanderbilt, in
measure, for the many social courtesies
extended to him on the occasion of his
recent visit to the United States. Well,
/ 1 can promise Mr. Vanderbilt and his
party rare fun if they enter the spirit of
the game and be in at the death"
Tiger hunting is indeed a royal sport. In
/
| canebrakes or wild horses through pam
| pas. or savage polar bears over cakes of
/ hoatlng ice, is tame and unintereSting.
! The excitement is continuous and the
suspense actually delightful. OF course,
there is dash of danger in the under
taking, no matter how strong the safe
guards thrown about the sport, but that
only enlivens the entertainment.
For twenty years / have engaged in
the pleasing pursuit of capturing lions,
tigers, jackals, hyenas, elephants and
! other wild animals for the late p. T.
| Barnum, and / can truthfuIIy assert that
tiger hunting is the grandest sport of all.
The fascination of the game is such that
even those who have become gray and
grizzled in the service leave it only with
| extreme reluctance, even after age has
rendered them incapable of following it
| further.
had one nights experience in the
Jungle thatI will never forget. 1t was
! while hunting for monster tiger which
was the terror of the domain over which,
like the British lion, he had established
sort of self-constituted suzerainty He
| had killed no less than sixty natives of a
| little village situated en- the left bank of
the Punjah river a tributary of the great
| Indus, about 300 miles east of Ajax the
scene of Alexander the Greats famous
! passage The natives had become thor
tion of the country in a body Indeed,
the pretty little hamlet when got there,
| resemb Ied Goldsmith's deserted viii
lage." Not a single OK, buffalo, or even
sheep, was in sight. Troops of British
soldiers from TaXila and other garrison
towns hunted for weeks for his
striped majesty, but in vain. Jupi-
ter, as this king of beasts was
appropriately termed by Capt. Helyars,
of the Eleventh Light Dragons, was too
cunning for them all. He avoided all
snares set for him and kept far away
from the reach of either the poisoned ar
rows of the natives or the rifles of the
whites. Yet, Jupiter kept up his depra-
dations with marked success. Besides
the sixty natives mentioned he had taken
off innumerable cattle. The eliminating
atrocfty was reached when HfSIfEa9er-
ship pounced upon an unfortunate soldier
one night and ran away with his prey be-
fore the very eyes of his comrades, with
out even a volley being fired so quickly
was the deed done. The soldier was one
of hunting party which were out four
nights looking for Jupiter, and it was his
turn to do guard duty. The poor fellow
was half dead with exhaustion and nodded
when he Should have been wide awake
and met an untoward fate
arrived at Atal1 about this time and
heard of the exploits of Jupiter, which
were indeed the talk of that entire sec
tion. l determined to catch that tiger
cost what it would. / had with me three
true and tried white men, the best tiger
hunters that ever invaded Jungle, and
100 natives, whom l had secured with
great difficulty, so far-reaching was the
terror that Jupiter had inspired. l meant
to take him alive, too, and have Barnum
exhibit the greatest tiger ever seen
either in ancient or modern times That,
you may surmise, would be no easy under
taking.
Here let me say that there are half a
dozen ways of hunting down tiger All
of them but one involve the death of the
monarch of the Jungle. The ordinary
way is to have the natives beat the wood
or jungle and rouse the tiger from his
lair. That royal beast, be it known, al
ways remains in concealment with his
mate in a thicket during the day and
seeks his prey after nightfall The noise
made by the natives thrashing the bush
arouses him from his slumber and he
comes stealthily from his'lair. The white
hunters, for the natives haye by this
time retired speedily to the rear, have
now their opportunity. Mounted on the
backs OF elephants and comparatively Sc
cure from danger they blaze away at the
tiger as he rushes at them, and in time
dispatch him.
Another mode of destruction is to hang
d SuG6p Or BOdG 10 Il FODS. suspended TO q
= number of heavy beams put together like
a cone and so adjusted that the moment
the tiger springs at the bait the beams
fall upon and crush him.
The natives of Dude have still another
mode of eucompassing the tigers death,
which is quite simple and effective. They
sprinkle thousands of broad leaves
| smeared with a substance like birch
I lime, in the path the tiger is supposed to
take. If he sets foot upon a smeared Leaf
he Is done for. he rubs his paw on his
head to get rid of the leaf and his plight
gets worse and worse. The leaves are
transferred to face, and all efforts to re-
, move the nuisance only adds more leaves
TO his head and face. Soon he becomes
blinded, and in an agony of fear and rage
he rolls on the grounds, bowling tiercely
all tho While. The hunters thus learn OF
his whereabouts and quickly step in and
xiii him
There is only one way to take the tiger
I alive ana uniuiured, and that is by means
of the trap. OF these there are two kinds
; the box trap, which the Chinese use. on
one side of which there is a mirror. The
| tiger IS attracted by his own photograph
: and tugs away viciously at the fastening
l OF the lid, which he succeeds in opening
and is caught very much after the man.