The Portland daily press., 1899-07-04

VII a ioeuoF fcoelttu W Ilouu AZ &foW
York last week. 1.-THE brute was fine
one, ten feet long, with perfect skin.
and there seemed every reason to thin k
that he would give any number OF hun
ters an ugly tussle. But he fell, like
ripe apple into basket, to the single gun
of the hunter who blundered upon him
In the Jungle. 1t was very odd chain of
circumstances that brought the result of
n dead tiger, instead Of the mauled hum
ter who might reasonably have been ex.
rected to issue from such1an encounter.
"The thing came about In this way:
A civilian named Martin, from Calcutta.
who was shooting at Ghurbasa, was
Watching In poppy field for a bsar that
was In the habit of coming thsre by
night. Ohurbasa is at the westerly edge
of the opium district and the bears there
ia the ripening season of the poppies
have trick of eating the seeds in the
pods. On this night, which was dark.
Martin heard the bear ann az the peoples,
but could not get shot At him. After
much waiting, in trying to get nearer the
bear, he alarmed him. and the beast made
hunter war tempted to send random
shot after him, but refrained. luckily as 1t
proved. The sounds of the animals NOV
ing through the underground had scarcely
died away when there came to the hun
| ter's ears the loud scream which the In.
| dian bear gives when in great pain OF
peril. and with 1t the sound of tiger
1 fx.r, Faxr wi,
were heard the voices of the two beasts in
conflict, and when these sounds ended the
\ hunter, not caring to investigate further
at the time. for the tiger was eviden tly
the victor, returned to the fleld-keeper's 6
hut where he was staying during the
hunt.
t'That the tiger should have attacked
the bear even without provocation was
not to be wondered at, for there is always
Ill will between these animals, and when
ever they meet, unless ths bear sees the
| tiger in time to take to tree, light to
the death is to be assumed. The tiger is
usually the winner, and for the most part
Is content with killing the bear, and
leaving his remains to the ants and jack
| ass b0t Auhbfy coAnCtilnO5 Audhce
his dinner off him, Going out next
morning to the scene of the battle OF the
night befors-the bears trail led pl ainly
to it-Martin found about an eighth of a
m lie beyond the field, in the jungle, the
bears body partly devoIred by the tiger.
The condition of the ground about
showed that there had been lively Eight
while 1t lasted. and the tigers tracks
| marked the direction he had taken after
his dinDer. The condition of the carcass
| and the tracks showed that the tiger had
left the bear at least six hours before. and
Martin had no idea that the animal could
be anywhere in the vicinity. de sent
| one OF the three natives with him back to
u tank for water, and, waiting his return,
smoked bis pipe to the windward of the
bear, taking no precautions whatever as
to watching or keeping silence.
when the native came back with the
water-chatty the hunter drank from 1t
and then started to follow the tiger ;
trail, smoking his pipe as he went for
ward. He had not gone fifty PAGES before
| he came directly upon the tiger lying
asleep In little open space beneath an
acacia tree. The brute was lying tum-
bleways, as If he had lurched In walking
and dropped in his tracks. and was sleep
| ing the slumber of the Seven SleeI ers
rolled into one. So close was Martin
| upon tie beast when he first saw him
| that with two more steps he could have
touched him with his rifle, but the tiger
did not rousa or move In the least from
his place. and all the noises made by the
| party while about the bear and In their
advance had failed to disturb him. In
deed. but for his heavy breathing, the
brute had all the appearance of dead
tiger.
"At sight of the tiger the natives svat ;
tered and took TO trees, and Martin, a
thorough sportsman and as pluoky as
| fhRU mAka rhQm aCf rfo
to the rear before stopping to investigate
| further Then from behind bunch of
| jungle grass he fired at the brute and
missed shot AS easy as could be offered.
| At the report of the rifle the tiger jumped
to his feet, stared wildly around, and
then bolted in the direction in which he
happened to be pointed at the moment,
which was toward the acacia tree, and
| brought up, head on, with a bump
against the trunk. This gave Martin a
fair shot at his side, and he placed bull
let behind the shoulder. Though the
wound would have proved mortal the I'll
ger was still active enough to have made
trouble for dozen hunters; but instead
OF charging at the smoke, as was to be
expected under the circumstances, he
whirled about and roared and tore at the
tree, which gave Martin a chance TO fin
ish him with a third shot In the ear
Martin at first could scarcely realize
his good fortune in bagGing q splendid
tiger SO easily. BY threatening them
with his rifle he got the natives down
from the trees. and with their help he
skinned the beast and came back with
the hide to the bungalow. His sxplana-
tion Of the strange behavior of the tiger
was that the beast was dopey' from feed
ing on the blood and tissue OF the poppy.
fed bear. This theory seems quite rea-
sonable. and it is corroborated by tina tes-
uimony both of Europeans hunters and
shikaries--native tiger hunters-who say
that the flesh of bears frequenting the
poppy fields has narcotic property which
strongly Affects any creature that fee Is
upon 1t. This is particularly the case
with those dissipated bears which are be-
lieved to have contracted the habit of
opium drunkenness, which they satisfy
In some manner in the poppy fields. Sew
eral planters have told me OF seeing kites
and jackals made stupidity drunk from
feeding on the carcass of bear killed in
a poppy district. Others have observed
bears in state Of glorious exhilaration
or profound 'dopiness' corresponding to
the effects of opium eating by human be-