Arizona republican., 1894-01-25
DIR. 0'KEARNEY'S SHOT.
It Saved the Life of an Indian at
the Last Moment.
Exciting Sport by Retired Officer in the
Jungles Near Deccan-The Capture
\ of Three Tiger Cubs-Other
= Adventures.

DR.. Brian O'Kearney, a retired sur
geon of the British army in India, has
been a guest of the Palace for several
days. He has the outward appearance
of an old veteran, and the vast fund
of anecdote which old travellers are
apt to have. To a representative of
the San Francisco Examiner he re-
lated an experience in the jungle as
follows:
"We fellows on half pay, you know,
like bit of hunting now and then, so
when one of my men came to my
house near Deccan one morning with
the news that a big panther had broken
cover, we lost no time in getting up
party of heaters and starting out.
, ''The beast turned out to be pan
there's. She had hidden her cubs
somewhere and had taken possession
of nulla or ravine only about mile
from the house. The heaters did not
care togo up the ravine after they had
located the panther, so took dog boy
and man to carry my second gun and
we started ahead.
''There was not a sound to be heard
save our own movements. We had gone
about ten rods up the nulla when there
was half growl, half spit, like that of
an angry cat, and the big beast jumped
out of the bushes within yard of my
face.
zone of the men was on his knees
half under me pulling away the brush;
the other was at my left hand with
the extra gun. The panther ignored
him, but she pulled the dog boy out
from between my legs as a cat would
a mouse She took this poor fellow in
her mouth, seized the other with her
paw and then made for the thick brush
again.
81 confess I was too frightened to
stir, but as she passed me she gave me
a blow with her great long tail, as
much as to say: My mouth is full and
my paws are busy, but I'll give you one
whack Just for luck That blow sent
me spinning down the hill, and that
fact sealed the big beasts death war
rant. kept hold of my gun, and when
l got to my feet she turned her broad
side toward me. The dog boy was
still in her mouth and one paw was on
the breast of the other beaten, but 1
pulled & bead on her and dropped her
in her tracks.
''By that time the rest of the heaters
had came up, bowling over the fate of
their comrades. We measured that
panther and found her eight feet long
1t was one of the biggest ever killed in
that district. The heaters skinned the
beast, and I've got the pelt at my home
in India now"
Dr. O'Kearney also related an expe-
rience with tigers on the Bombay side.
/! He told how the heaters in that district
tracked a tiger by the pugprints, or
footmarks, and then lined up to get
the big game at bay.
Gin this case, however," said the
huntsman, ''the tiger got between the
heaters in the line without anybody
getting a shot at her, but we captured
three tiger cubs about six weeks old.
held one of these up in my hands and
made it whine, thinking perhaps the
mother would come back, but we
never saw or heard of her again.
zone of these cubs was tanned by
Col. Hansen of the army, another was
sent to the Geological garden in Lon
! don, and l do not remember what be-
came of the third. They weighed
about twenty pounds each at the time
we got them. They were tiger
striped as pretty as you please, and if
they could have forgotten their savage
nature they would have made the cum
ningest kind Of playthings."
DR.. O'Kearney, before his retire
ment from active service, was in the
Afghanistan war, in 1879-S0. He was
with the Sixty-sixth regiment at the
battle of Mayand, when that body of
troops known as the Kandahar column
was hopelessly routed by the over
whelming forces of Ayub Khan. The
old veteran says that more than half
the regiment were killed, and if the
Afghans had followed up their advan-
tage not one of the British soldiers
would have escaped.