Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-11-01
A BATTLE FOR WATER
FIERCE STRUGGLE BETWEEN AN ELE
PLANT AND TWO TIGERS.

and His Claim Was Not Disputed Until
the Thirsty Tigers Came on the Scene
An Excited Guide Spoiled the Fun.
The tiger hunter does not hunt at ran
dom for his game. He knows that in the
heat of the day the great cat sleeps the
hours away in the deepest solitude he can
find. His bed may be in the dense jungle,
where he must worm his way in and out
like q serpent, or in some dark ravine
splitting the hills and Offering him a hun
dred spots which have never been lighted
up by the rays of the sun since the hills
were created. When the sun goes down
and darknes follows it's setting, then the
royal beast opens his eyes, yawns and
stretches, and after a few snarls and growls
lazily leaves his lair in search of supper.
He may cross a dozen streams, but he will
not lap at the water. 1t is only after he
has eaten his fill and is ready to retire and
sleep again that a great thirst seizes him,
and he seeks the nearest creek or pool and
plunges his head in until he must shut his
eyes as he laps enough water to satisfy the
thirst of an OK.
And the men who hunt the elephant as
we'll as the tiger know that the largest
animal on earth is as crafty and cunning
and far more timid than the fox. If there
Is danger in the air, he may thirst until
his mouth grows hot, but he will not leave
the shelter of the forest to drink until
after midnight. Then he makes his way
through thicket and over fallen trees and
up hill and down more quietly than the
hyena who follows after. When they are
in two and threes and more, the tiger
who has come down to the pool will skulk
about, splitting n snarling, and wait for
them to depart, but when there is only one
the royal beast will assert his right to
drink where he pleases and as long as he
will.
After riding for two hours our native
guide led us to a water hole on the edge of
a great forest. During the rainy season it
was a lake covering 20 acres of ground.
In the dry season it was little better than
a mud hole, but furnished the only water
for miles around. We saw the track of the
elephant, buffalo, deer and wild hog and
doubted not that the tiger, panther, hyena
and jaokal came to the same pool to slake
their thirst.
Ere the sun went down we had built our
platform among the trees, eaten our sup
per and prepared to pass the night as com
fortably as possible. We cared nothing for
elephant, buffalo or deer. 1t was a tiger
we had come to kill, and knowing that he
would not appear until long after mid
night the two of us slept and left it to the
guide to watch and wake us at the proper
hour. Soon after 10 O'Clock he whispered
to us that a ROGUE" ~elephant-an outlaw
from the herd and more to be feared than
the tiger-had come down from the forest
and taken possession Of the pool. Stand
ing in the center of it, he was trying to
brighten all other corners away. We
watched him for q few minutes and then
slept again, and an hour later the native
whispered in our cars:
'Sahib, it is time. The rogue is still
here, but the forest has suddenly grown
quiet. That means that a tiger is coming
to drink. I think he will come by the
path over the hill"
1t was two hours yet to daybreak, but
we had the light of moon and stars and
could see everything almost as we'll as by
daylight. 1t is never quiet in an Indian
forest by night except when the tiger
moves about. Then the very tree toads
n insects seem to be warned of his pres
ence and hush their notes for a time. The
elephant was standing like a block Of
stone, his eyes fastened on the crest of the
hill spoken of by the native. and for three
or four minutes the silence was so pro-
oundt that we could hear our watches tick
ing. Then the head of the tiger appeared
above the hill, and half a minute later the
beast came slowly walking down. He was
a full grown male, and he was followed
by his mate. There were defiance and con-
tempt in their very gait as they slouched
along, and before reaching the pool each
gave utterance to q vicious growl to warn
the elephant that they were not to be tri-
fled with. He stood SO quietly that you
would have thought him asleep, and for a
moment the tigers sat down on the edge
of the pool and glared at him and struck
out with q fore paw, as you have seen an
angry cat. AS he did not move. they low
cred their heads to lap at the water, but at
the first sound the rogue uttered a shrill
scream and dashed at them.
We had looked to see the tigers stand,
but his terrific rush frightened them for
the moment, and they ran away, closely
pursued to the top of the hill by the tru1n-
peting elephant. After five minutes he
slowly returned to take his place in the
pool, but he had not yet reached the wa
tiers when the tigers, perhaps ashamed of
their fight came bounding down and upon
him. AS he wheeled to meet them and
sweep the earth with his trunk one sprang
upon his forehead and bit and dug and
raked him, and the other alighted on his
left hip and pursued the same tactics. The
elephant made a rush into q grove of young
trees, and the tigers were swept to the
ground. Then he came crashing back in
search of them. Huge as he was in bulk,
his movements were wonderfully quick.
With a sweep Of his trunk he rolled one
tiger over and over and into the water, and
to rid himself of the other, which had
mounted his back, he dropped down and
rolled over and was up again before we
had realized the trick. The beast knocked
into the water swan out and together the
pair again attacked. They fastened to his
hind legs, they bounded upon his back,
they were under and over him as cats play
with a ball. We heard their teeth and
olaws tearing at his tough hide, and we
heard them yelp with pain as he brushed
them off or dealt blows with his trunk.
OF a sudden, when the battle was ~1ercest,
the excited native accidentally discharged
his gun. There was a growl from the tt
gers and q blast from. the elephant, and
when the smoke had cleared away there
was nothing in sight. Tigers and ele-
plant had fed in terror from the presence
0f man -St TOuic Popnhlic =E=s