The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-02-18
SOME TIGER ADVENTURES.
Tiger and an Alligator--saved by a Box
of Snuff.

l. knSW an CID Sh1karl VINO nau Iougnb
many q battle with the royal Bengal
tiger, and had had many a hairbreadth
escape from the latter's jaws. One tine
afternoon, having nothing better to do,
he went out fishing with half .a-dozen of
his friends -this is not going to be fish
story, but real, live tiger story, the
fishy part coming in only incidentally.
They chose small river some couple of
hundred yards in width. One bank of
the river was fiat and open. but the other
was somewhat undulating and shrubbery
in fact, it was adjacent to jungle.
The fishers sat in a row about ten PAGES
apart on the former bank; each had n
loaded gun by his side as precaution
against unwelcome intruders. Now, our
friend heard swish, and, turning round,
beheld his rod scudding along the surface
of the water like a racing-yacht. Suoh
a catch was worth little exertion; so he
plunged into the water and struck out for
the rod. He came up with it almost at
the other side of the river, but at that in
slant a terrific roar was heard, tiger
leapt on the swimmer from the neighber-
ing brush, and was off with him before
his startled companions could raise
finger on his behalf.
he shikari was a little stunned by
the tigers onslaught; he recovered con-
seriousness, however, in a few minutes,
when he found himself lying on the
tigers back, and in full sail towards the
IF ~ Fo,,tu ofof1y ha yva
not seriously hurt. as the tiger had
gripped him by the arm just above the
elbow. There he lay quite helpless; what
was he to do? Any movement on his part
might have made his condition far worse;
30 he lay perfectly quiet, and shut his
eyes AS if he were dead. Soon, however,
the tiger arrived at his den, which was
no more than hollow soooped in the
sand at the foot Of a large tree. There
the tiger deposited him and covered him
over loosely with some sand. Luckily
for him, his face was uppermost when he
fell, otherwise he would have had no other
alternative between death by suffocation
and death from the tiger it he had dared
to move. AS it was, he could manage to
breathe gently, and even to have an oc-
casional glimpse under his eyelid. After
this operation of partial burial, the tiger
ran ahead few yards, but returning in
stantly as If he had some misgivings in
his mind. Sesipg, however, all safe, he
bon nded forth, but again returned to
make assurance doubly sure. He kept up
this method of self-persuasion for few
times till, feeling quite certain about the
matter, he finally went away on his mis-
sion. After waiting few minutes to see
that.the tiger had really gone, our shikari
sprang up and climbed the tree just over
the den, and hid himself we'll among the
leaves. He had not long to wait for the
depouement, for the tiger soon returned,
accompanied by tigress and a couple of
cubs (like generous and exemplary hus
band and father, the tiger evidently
scorned to eat on the sly). They came
along with many joyful cat-ljke gam
Dol in anticipation of the great feast, and
found the den-empty! Such lamenta
ton over the lost dinner then arose as
was never heard before in the whole ami
NAL kindom in fact, the tigers persisted
SO long in their piteous cries that our
shikari began to have some doubts as to
the righteousness of defrauding the poor
creatures of their hard-earned wages; but
he was prevented from Offering himself to
them in q moment of misguided magma
nimity by the thought of his own wife
and children, whose claim upon him was
obviously higher. AT any rate, he stuck
in the tree all night, as it was too risky
then next morning, when the coast was
clear, he fled home to tell me these I'M
doubted facts.
My next story is not simply tiger
story, Tor there is an alligator in 1t; so
we had better call it a d-alligator
story" just outside Of an Indian village
there was jheel, or ravine. This jheel
was close to small river, n tributary of
the Ganges; when the river periodically
overlooked it's banks during the rains it
became one with the jheel, and on these
occasions the denizens of the river usually
took it into their several heads to pay d
casual visit to the jheel. Now one even
ing a villager went to the jheel to have
wa sh. He entered into the jheel right up
to his neck and began to disport himself
like porpoise. Now a tiger, having
seen him thus engaged from the top of the
hill on the same side Of the jheel, began
to stalk his prey by stealthy creeps.
Having come to right distance, the
brute gave a leap towards his prey. But
alas! the tiger was no mathematician:
| he evidently had neglected the study OF
dynaInlcs in his ool-days (perhaps 1t
was the fault of his parents in having
cent him to cheap institution). At oil
events, he failed to recognize the fact that
since his prey was much lower than him
self in relative altitude, leap OF the
right strength for horizontal range
WOulU carry ulul U0rOu't LIS 1iIdEA WH"A
there was an angle of depression; conse-
quently he fell some eight or ten feet on
the other side of the bather.
Now it happened that In the meantime
an alligator had also seen the villager
from the opposite side of the aforesaid
| jheel, and, thinking that his dinner time
had arrived, began to draw a Decline I'M
der water towards the bather. When he
| thought that he had almost come upon
his prey (for he could not see very well
under water, as it was so muddy, he
heard great splash just in front, and
thinking it was case of "now OF never"
| Gas the bather might be intending that
| splash for final gambol preparatory to
| his departure), he made dash forward
and brought his enormous jaws down
upon-the tigers paw
| AT first the bather nearly tainted with
fright when he saw the tiger fall on the
water He could not, however, under
stand for few moments why the tiger
did not turn round to devour him. What
was the meaning Of this strange untiger-
| like conduct? And why on earth did the
| tiger persist in keeping one of his paws
under water, and beat the water savagely
with the other, uttering horrible growls
all the time? Most mysterious of all, the
water began to turn red Then all at