Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1894-12-14

BATTLE WITH TIGERS.

A New York paper says a battle
SCARED veteran of the British army
visited the American museum of natural
history last Sunday, and stood for a
long time in front of the big glass case
containing mounted group that rep
resents tragedy of the desert
The group contains long Arab,
mounted on camel, aud two lions.
The scene, represented, in a most graph
ic manner, is the attack Of the lions on
the Arab and his camel, and the appar-
emily hopeless fight Of the former for his
life. The camel is bleeding frOm a
dozen gaping wounds the Arabs gun
has fallen into the sand, he has killed
one of the lions with his long, narrow
bladed knife, but the other has sprung
upon him from behind and is dragging
him from his saddle, while, with look
of despair in his face, he struggles to
free his bleeding right hand, in which
he holds the long knife, the only weapon
Of defense.
There was a sparkle of excitement in
the eyes of the Englisbman as he looked
at the group.
docs it remind you of something
exciting?' asked man who had noticed
the Englishman's interest.
at does, indeed" he replied "Thc
hardest fight for my life that ever had
was something like that, only was
mounted on an elephant, and was fight
ing two of the largest and fiercest tigers
Of India Instead of lions"
"My men in the jungle we're now
making an awful din, and the tigers
came straight ahead, leaping along at a
good pace. They were a male and a
female, and the finest specimens | ever
saw.
"Just as they cleared the edge of the
jungle fred at the tiger in front, But
the elephant, now thoroughly scared t,
swerved to one side little and missed
At the sound of the shot the two big
cats stopped for u second, and then as
the noise by the natives in the jungle
increased they bounded forward again
straight towards me.
"Then, just as | was ready for a
second shot, with the animals not more
than 100 feet away, my elephant lost
his nerve completely, and turned tail to
run, | was standing up to get better
aim, and his quick turn almost threw
me to the ground
AS it was, only saved myself from
falling by dropping my rife and clutch
ing the canopy over my head. With
below of terror the elephant was now
running away as fast as he could. My
only weapons now were an army pistol
and long-bladed hunting knife. BY
the time recovered my balance and
was able to look around the tigers were
upon us. With single bound the
tigress landed on the launches Of the
elephant, and began to tear up the flesh
with tooth and nails | fred a shot al
her with my pistol, but close as she wa,
my aim was bad, and the ball struck
her in the shoulder, making a wound
that simply made her fighting mad
1.-THE beast seemed to notice my pres
ence then for the first time, and tried tt
spring at me Her front feet caught il
the rudely constructed elephant saddle
and with her weight pulling it to one
side, and the frantic struggles Of the Gle
plant to shake her off, the saddle wal
twisted over TO one side. With des
perate effort got out of it in time and
somehow managed to land astride thu
bare back of the elephant. dropped
my pistol, and only the knife in ny
belt was left me.
"'Tho tigress was now clinging to tn,
side of the elephant. and digging be-
claws into his flesh in order TO hold on
All the time she was making frantic effor
10 get at me, and could feel her no
breath in my face as lay down on th
back of the elephant, and held on 70
dear life.
Somehow, | never knew Just how
managed it, got hold of my knife, an,
striking out blindly at the third strok
| sent the blade TO the hilt in the bod
Of the tigress, just back Of her LEI
shoulder. | fortunately reached vita
spot, and in a few moments her hel
90 the elephant relaxed, and she drop
ded to the ground.
Then for the first time since tb
conflict began | got a chance to loo
around to see what had become Of tn
tiger. My elephant had all the tim
been Turning around in a circle. al