The National tribune., 1899-08-31
A HUNTING TRIP
IN INDIA.
Beating for a Tiger in the Sat-
pura Hills.
BY DR.. J. HAMpDEN PORTER.

To drive a tiger and to beat for him arr
different things. even when the term driv
ing is appropriate, which is not always thu
case, as it sometimes happens that this
beast is not driven, but fights at once
What is called a drive, however, takes
place in open country-generally on grassy
plains easily traversed by elephants
Contrariwise, one must beat among ravines
or jungles, and cannot do so anywhere else
When a tiger has been marked down
trackers make careful survey OF thai
neighborhood. They know how lmprob'
able it is for an ordinary animal OF this KIND
to have more than one abiding place at
time, and as all future operations turn
towards getting him out of that particular
position, and into another which will be
occupied by sportsmen before he arrives,
many manuvers adapted to special surface
features must be predetermined.
The chief shikari locates every path
leading away from a lair, settles upon
which is most likely to be taken, selects
their positions for watchers whose business
it is to keep the animal from getting off by
side issues, determines how the main body
of beaters shall proceed, and fixes upon a
spot for the final encounter.
1t is advisable to let tiger get well on in
his morning nap before commencing with
those earthen bombs, nagaras, gongs,
cholera horns, and other instruments OF
music intended to serenade him out of his
home. Our orchestra accompanying the
vocal efforts of about three dozen natives,
produced effects such as personal experience
only will enable any man to believe in.
acfn,,ichaI f11o nc hiS
showed; but while these diabolical sounds
doomed down the ravine with endless
echoes and reverberations, he began to think
of being surrounded and got into passion.
That kind of beast, however, seldom loses
its head-never, indeed, before receiving a
wound; then it becomes desperate with
rage
When this fiend chorus began, Stripes
came out of his nook among cliffs shutting
in the valleys head, and, like all tigers,
bearing complete map of his surroundings
engraved upon memory, bethought him
self concerning several ways which opened
from this disturbed locality towards quiet
retreats he was acquainted with; places
which after the provident fashion of his
kind had been previously inspected with
reference to some such necessity as now
arose.
He lost no chances through undue haste,
however. There is not an old and gifted
fox alive that has command of SO many
tricks as tiger. 1t seems like an anomaly
In nature for creature possessing such
terrible powers of destruction to have this
excess of cunning also; since it is generally
those animals least adapted for defense
which are most willy and resourceful in
evading danger. But the jungle king not
only stands first as destroyer, he is also |
the most accomplished sneak within his
wide domains.
. Fortunately, however, for people who live |
in the same country, this dangerously
endowed being exhibits certain weak
nesses both mental and physical that de- |
tract from his otherwise unequalled ca
pacity for doing harm. One of these de- |
tractive traits is shown conspicuously |
whenever this beast is hunted with beaters /
and does not charge at once; moreover, it |
may be regarded as direct cause of its |
death in most instances.
1t sounds absurd to say that tigers are
morbidly imaginative, but in that low sort |
of way which goes by the name of suspicion
this is undoubtedly the case. They have I
not anything like the same capacity for |
seeing things in their true aspects that
many other species possess. No matter
how harmless it may be, any unfamiliar
object or incident Immediately excites
fanciful constructions.
Big and heavy as he was, our tiger could
have scaled those nights with ease, burst
through that unarmed crowd, and made
his escape for the time being. There is no
use in saying he did not know it, because
this is not the reason why no such attempt
vas made. What prevented him from