Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-05-15

ed white engineers, doctors, soldiers
and military officers as well as laborers
| from India, coolies and African ma
| tives. On almost any night, and at any
time of the night, the men were liable
to be aroused by the shrieks of their
abducted comrades, and to hear the
cracking of their bones and the tearing
of their limbs a rod or two away, while
the lions growled and quarreled over
their prey. Sick men In the hospital
| died from sheer terror at these horrible
sounds and the horrible scenes they
suggested. The beasts were shot at in
the darkness, but seldom hit. For fire.
arms, fire or torches they cared moth
ing. One of them leaped upon an Off
Ger, tore his knapsack from his back
and then carried away and devoured
a soldier near him.
Many became SO terror-stricke that
they threw themselves on the rails in
front of a coastward train and insisted
on either being run over or carried off
on the train. Those who stayed for
sock the tents and huts and camped
out on top Of the water tanks, on roofs
and bridge girders or in beds lashed to
the highest branches of the trees. One
night one Of these broke, letting its
dodgers fall within a few feet Of the
lions. But, being already too occupied
with d"vouring a victim, the brutes
gave no heed to this "windfall," but let
the intruders escape until another
meal.
During the eight months that these
lions lived upon these railroad men
they would be occasionally wounded by
shot and obliged to retire from active
life, thus giving the camp intervals Of
quiet. But they killed and ate in all
nearly thirty natives OF India, twice as
many African natives, besides injurfng
many others Of various nationalities.
1t was impossible to poison them be-
cause they confined their diet entirely
to human beings, to the neglect Of every
kind of game, with which the region
abounds. The white men were not
numerous enough to hunt them sue
cessfully and the Sepoys were too un-
skilled with firearms. At length an en-
gineer Of the line who spent months of
his time pursuing them, worn out by
loss of sleep, sitting up in the moon
light and tracking them during the day,
succeeded in shooting them both and
putting an end to these man-eaters'
reign of terror. They were each over
nine feet long.
Both Africa and India are in many
parts under the dominion of the lion
and tiger. Against the lion of South
Africa the native has TO be constantly
on his guard. The arabs arrange their
tents in a circle in the center of which
the herds are penned, and outside the
tents is a rude hedge. When they hear
the animal begin roaring, and he can be
heard plainly at a distance of three
miles, sometimes family nine miles off,
they kindle the heaps of wood that
have been piled up before each tent SO
that the occupant may hurl a lighted
brand at him. But some of the brutes
have become SO wonted to the fire, the
yelping of the dogs and the cries of the
people that they pay no attention to
them. He boldly leaps within the In
closure. He drives men, women and
children into their tents. silences the
dogs and stampedes horses, sheep and
dogs through the hedge and across the
desert.
From the sheep, too, frightened to
flee, he selects his supper and carries it
away to the mountains. Or If the
moods suit pursues the horses and
cattle. OF these he will sometimes kill
three or four and suck their blood,
leaving their carcasses where he over
took them. The power of these black
African lions is enormous. The strong
est Of them can clear an eight-foot In
closure holding in their mouths q 3