Morris tribune., 1897-11-24
A TIGER HUNT.
In Costa Rica, With Plenty of Sport, sut
| Little Game.

| In Costa Rtcay With Plenty OF Sport, 5ut
Al Little Game.
| Big preparations were being made
for our Christmas dinner of roast
| pig with apple sauce, venison chops
and other dishes, and it was impos-
sible to escape the odors from time
to time waited in fragrant breezes
from the outside kitchen. All the
doors and windows were, of course,
wide open, because in Costa RIGA we
do not know what winter is, and
there is hardly any change in climate
the year round. AS was sitting at
my desk thinking of all the good
things for dinner one of my men
came hurrying in with gun over
shoulder and dog at heel to tell me
he had that very morning, and not
a half hour before, seen tiger pass
through the bottom of the farm and
enter the bush about mile from
the house. He had seen the tiger
carrying a young one in its mouth.
Would / get my dogs and gun and
hunt here Well, yes, I would, and
pretty quickly too.
Ny neighbor, Mr.. S., was easily
induced to join the party, also a
friend of his who was staying with
him. So in all we were a party of
four, including the man who had
seen the tiger Mr.. S. had repeat
ing shotgun, his German friend a
rifle which would not go off, our
guide double barreled shotgun and
myself "A rifle, 1t took us about
three-quarters of an hour to reach
the edge of the forest, where the
tiger had been seen. Here the dogs
became very excitable, taking the
fresh trail with spirit. No one who
has not hunted in a tropical forest
can realize how hard it is to make
ones way through the bush 1t is a
matter of patience and machete
work
Our German friend concluded to
sit himself down on log and await
developments while the rest of US
followed after the dogs We sup
posed the old tiger would not travel
far, and this proved to be good
guess. What with the barking of
the dogs and the noise we made cut
ting the way with our machetes
the old tiger must have been badly
frightened.
At about this time we beard our
German friend, whom we had left
on the log, calling US at great rate
and, as we made circle back, could
hear him calling, Il hear the tiger"
And there he sat on the same log,
with his old rifle that would not 20
off cooked and looking pretty ex-
pectant. We all listened. and, sure
enough, we could hear crying and
splitting about IS yards off in the
bush. We followed up the sound
till we came to a snarl of an old tree
trunk and vines. We cut away the
vines as best we could with our ma
chetes, and there, squeezed up as
close as he could get to a big tree
root, was a young tiger, scratching
and splitting away at a great rate
and doing it we'll too crawled in
and grabbed him by the back of the
neck.
There were no signs of the old
tiger She must have been too |
scared to stay and see what was 60
ing on. Our German was very mad
when told that his gun would not
shoot and, in fact, threw the gun
down on the ground and said that
he would be blowed if he would car
ry it home, and so a peon was sent
out for it, | took the little tiger
home with me and kept him some
time, but the facts are that the cook !
overfed him, and he died from the
effects
We all enjoyed QUIZ Christmas din
ner that day, including the little
tiger, who had his share
A week later we had calf killed
by a jaguar, but that is different
story. They are all cowardly and
will not show fight to man unless
badly wounded The black panther
is also found here, but is quite rare
On the other hand, the jaguar is
common enough
This country is rich in game and
should be better known.-Forest and
Stream
They Knew Their Passengers.