Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1906-04-28
A TIGER DRIVE.

famous method of tiger driving.
went with three gentlemen Of Mr..
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 a correspondent Of the In
dian Pioneer, we got a glimpse Of the
scale on which the maharaiah con
ducts his operations.
For the purpose OF this single beat
upwards Of 30 huts had beer con-
structed, only of boughs and leaves 1t
is true, but still huts quite rs sub
stantial as those which the Taros in
the Terai consider good enough for
permanent hahitation. These huts
were built in a perfectly straight line
about 20 yards apart, this line being
in fact the chord of an arc. the are
itself formed by a 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-
priyed 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 huts
a 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 to
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 80
or 40 elephants which l formerly men
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,
30 % to form the chord of the arc.
as far rs 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 (also
perhaps 30 or 40 in number) were
then extended backward so as to join
hands with the pad elephants which
had suficed to furnish. say, half the
chord, and then the ring OF elephants
around the doomed tiger was COM
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 GEN.
! ter. Strict directions were given that
no n under any circumstances was
70 firs except the PRINCE: Even jung
Bahadur and Ger. 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 point and the
prince and his two companions NOV.
ing toward the same point, but with
in the ring, and a little in advance of
U part of 1t, began to close In.
There were about 400 elephants en-
I ployed. should guess that at frst
there may have been on the average
four yards between every two eie-
plants. Allow six feet for the breadth
of the elephant itself, and the circle
may be roughly estimated. as a mile
and a 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 a tree interposed, the elephants
were almost touching each other.
Before 1t had actually Come TO thfs
/, a large herd Of spotted deer. with two
Ans stays among them, had shown
themselves at various points of the
circle, seeking where to break through.
AT last, maddehsd by the shouting and
crashing Of branches rs the elephants
marched on and In utter desperation,
n 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. | could not see the prince on
account OF some intervening. under |
wood, but It was. OF course, he 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 |
a black partridge actually few and
stunned itself against an elephants
head.
Then came a fourth shot. Still we
pressed inward. Only now thera was