The Globe-republican., 1906-05-03
A TIGER DRIVE.

Girdlestone's party to the neighbor-
hood OF the jungle which was to be
beaten an hour or SO before the time
fixed for the princes start from
camp. Before we had gone half a
mile, says correspondent Of the In
dian Pioneer, we got glimpse Of the
scale on which the maharajah con-
ducts his operations.
For the purpose of this single beat
upwards Of 40 huts had been con.
structed, only of boughs and leaves It
Is true, but still huts quite as sub.
stantial as those which the Taros in
the Terai consider good enough for
permanent habitation. These huts
were built in perfectly straight line
about 20 yards apart, this line being
In fact the chord Of an arc, the arc
Itself formed by close Gordon Of ele.
plants
By day for several previous days
these huts, open towards the arc, had
been occupied by groups of soldiers
and shikaries who by the noise Of
their chatter and the clatter of their
cooking and wood cutting quite de-
prived the tigers in the forest in front
Of them of any fancy for strolling that
way; and by night these sentries had
maintained huge fires between each
hut, which fires had the same result OF
barring the way during the dark
hours. In front of this line of nuts
path about ten yards wide had been
cleared Of timber so as to permit
the convenient approach of the
princes elephants to the scene Of ac-
ton.
BY this time the prince and his
party were beginning to arrive, so
the maharajah pushed forward ia
meet him, and we Joined in behind.
Now the plan of operations. which is
indeed Of the utmost simplicity, began
to develop itself. The Gordon of 30
or 40 elephants which | formerly NEIL
toned, and which marked one end Of
the arc or semi-circle of elephants,
now extended themselves in line, d.
rectly the princes party had passed,
so as to form the chord OF the arc,
as far as their number permitted. In
the manwhile, the prince and maha-
rajah, with their followers, proceed
ed along the line of huts until they
came to the last, where was the other
extremity of the arc.
The elephants Of our party (alao
perhaps 30 or 40 in number) were
then extended backward so az to Join
hands with the pad elephants which
had sufficed to furnish. say, half the
chord, and then the ring Of elephants
around the doomed tiger was CON-
plete. Three elephants only were ex-
empted from forming links In this
chain, those Of the prince the maha-
rajah and Gen. Probyn. These were
within the ring and free to go wher-
ever desirable, all others to keep in
their places in the circle so far as
intervening trees would permit, and
simply press convergently to the cen-
ter. Strict directions were given that
no one under any circumstances was
to fire except the prince. Even Jung
Bahadur and Gen. Probyn would not
fire unless in the case of the princes
extreme peril. Then the ring of the
elephants, every mahout pressing
toward the same central poin; and the
prince and his two companions NOV
ing toward the same point, but with
in the ring, and little In advance of
our part Of it, began to close in.
There were about 400 elephants EN-.
ployed. should guess that at first
there may have been on the average
four yards between every two ele-
plants. Allow six feet for the breadth
of the elephant itself, and the circle
may be roughly estimated as a mile
and half round. Soon, however, the
Interval between the elephants dwin-
died to three yards, two yards, one
yard. At last, except where the trunk
Of tree interposed, the elephants
were almost touching each other.
Before 1t had actually come to this
a large herd of spotted deer. with two
fine stays among them, had shown
themselves at various points of the
circle, seeking where to break through.
At last, maddened by the shouting and
crashing Of branches as the elephants
marched on and in utter desperation,
one hind rushed between two ele-
plants near me and the rest Of the
herd followed her.
The deer, however, had soon all
passed, and the ring was again con.
tinuous. At this time a shot was
heard. l could not see the prince on
account of some intervening under.
wood, but 1t was, of course. be who
had fired. Then came two shots in
rapid succession, and the shouting of
The mahouts redoubled; and the noise
was indeed so alarming and stupefy-
ing to the birds within the circle that
! black partridge actually ,aew and
stunned itself against an elephants
head.
Then came fourth shot Still we
pressed inward. Only now there was
not room for all the elephants to keep
in their places in the too narrow cir
lie and great number Of pad ele.