STRANGE ADVENTURE IN AN INDIAN FOREST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 314, 17 May 1869, Page 3

STRANGE ADVENTURE IN AN INDIAN FOREST.

Some time ago I accompanied a patty of officers through the jungle at the base of the Aravelli Mountain, in the Bombay Presidency, for the purpose of shooting timers and other wild animals. One day I left my companions for a stroll round a lake not far distant irom the place they were watching. Before I had finished the circuit of the lake, the position of the sun, nearly touching the horizon, warned me that I had betier cut my researches short if I wished to get to our cam pby daylight. Accordingly, I quickened my pace, and took a short cut across a large expanse of boggy ground, the rank vegetation sometimes reaching as high as my face. Whilst struggling through this morass, and the gloom of evening rapidly increasing, I suddenly heard the cracking of rushes, the sounds of hoofs on the wet ground, followed by a peculiar bellow, apparently compounded of the roar of a bull and the bleat of a goat. At the same moment a gigautic black head and two glaring eyeballs appeared iv the gloom a few yards away from me. Involuntarily I stepped back, and as I did so an euormous buffalo, with tail erect and head held down, charged right upon me. My first impression was to fly, but on turning round for this purpose I saw a tree a few yards to the right. As I turned in this direction, the impetus of the buffalo carried the animal on in a direct line, its body just brushing my person as he passed. Quick as lightning I was at the trunk of the tree, and before the buffalo turned with another mad charge I had reached a branch, which supported nic two or three feet above his back. At first I thought that in a few minute 3 the beast would depart, but before I had seated myself in the fork of the branch, I heard the bleating of a calf, and, immediately after, the appearance of the young beast itself. The old buffalo advanced a step or two to meet her calf, and, after licking it for a few moments, both lay dowu at the foot of the. tree, directly under my position. Here was a pretty mess to be in — alone ?n the jungle, perched in a low tree, with the darkness of night rising around, and an infuriated buffalo lying in wait for me below ! In order to attract my friends, or frighten the animal, I shouted, and shouted again, until I was hoarse, but the brute lay p^cidly caressing and licking its calf. I changed my position to a branch that grew on the opposite side of the tree, but whilst doing so the buffalo arose, shook her head, and looked up at me with eyes glaring like a pair of lire coals. I now attempted to get into an upright position, aud for that purpose put out my left baud to take hold of a branch over nay head, and I had scarcely seized it when I felt my hand was severely stung or bitten by some insect or animal. Skirting up with the sudden pain, I lost my balance and fell from my place of refuge. Long before I could realise my position I felt myself carried away at a tremendous pace, through the long grass of the jungle. A few moments, aud I understood my position. I had fallen astride on the buffalo's back ! I seized the brute's horns and held on with my legs ; shaken by the fall, and the idea that I had been bitten by a snake, all my faculties and strength were concentrated in the necessity of holding on. But this was no easy matter. The buffalo shook her head, lashed her tail, and leaped and jumped as though possesse 1 by a demon, rushing straightforward with gveat speed at the same time. Scratched and bruised by branches of trees, and with joints almost dislocated by the shaking, I felt my strength was giving way. Just at this moment I heard a splash of water, and the next was immersed up to my neck in the fluid, the animal having taken to the lake. My weight sank the buffalo so low in the water that her nose was only just above water. At times it was with difficulty that I could keep my own nose above the surfa-je. Had I been able to sw'm I would have slipped off the buffalo's back, and have made the best of my way to the shore, but I could not swim a yard, and if I loosed the animal I should infallibly be drowned. In a short time I felt a stinging sensation in my legs, and felt sure that I had again been bitten by another variety of serpent. The brute kept swimming in a circle, till at last the swimming motion ceased, and the animal commenced walking. I felt her gradually sinking. She was cither submerging in the mud, or preparing to lie down and roll. Quick as lightning I dug my heels into her side, and delivered random blows with my fists on her head and neck. This had the desired effect, and she at once started forward, and commenced her mad gallop, and a few bounds brought us to a stand under the very tree from which we started. This I perceived iv a moment from the bleating of the calf. I immediately seized the branch of the tree on which I had before sat, and it was no very difficult matter to swing myself up, and once more assume my old position. The buffalo still remained below, walking uneasily round and round the tree. I determined to remain where I was till morning, and trust to the arrival of some help. I again with more intenseness felt the smarting in my legs, which caused a deadly faiutness to come over me. I remember in my despair uttering one faint cry, and for some hours my life was a blank. My senses seemed to return suddenly, and I became soon aware that a serious struggle was going on a few feet beneath between my enemy, the buffalo, and some large wild animal. The growling of the latter, the groans of the buffalo, the noise of their struggles, and the incessant bleating of the calf, combined in producing a series of sounds, which, in the darkness of night, were most horrible. For full five minutes, which appeared hours to me, the dreadful struggle continued, until at length, the groans of the buffalo subsided into a series of convulsive gasps and snorts, and the sounds of struggling on the ground almost ceased. I could, however, hear the wild animal, which I now judged to be a tiger, growling, snarling, aud spitting

like an immense cat. I could, however, only make out a confused mass on the ground. So dark was the night that it was quite impossible to say what that something was. I could only sit still and listen, and I could now hear the heast of prey tearing the flesh of its victim, and lapping the still fluid hlood. After a time, the sounds ceased suddenly, but I felt sure the beast had not departed, for I had kept my eyes fixed on the dark outlines under the shadow of the tree. I fancied I could trace the form of a tiger lying alongside the dead buffalo. All sound, save the bleating of the young buffalo had now ceased, and my impression was that the tiger after gorging himself had fallen asleep. I think just this period was as trying as anything I had gone through during this terrible night. I was aroused by hearing the very distant neigh of a horse, and looking in the direction that the sound came from, I saw the glimmer of a torch, and after I had seen the light circle round part of the lake it arrived opposite my position, and the searchers caught the sound of the cries that I now renewed with all the vigour that I could use. When the party arrived within speaking distance, I implored them to stop, unless they wished to walk into the jaws of a tiger. My friends told me to direct them by my voice, and, each armed with his rifle, shoulder to BhouTder, they approached the tree. As the glare of the torch struck on the ground below, I could plainly see the forms of the buffalo and tiger. I called out to my friends to beware of a spring. The tiger, however, did not rise, but as the torch was moved, a better light was thrown upon the animal, and I saw that the tiger lay with his mouth open,, his tongue protruded, and covered with white fo mi, and his limba stiffened as though in death. I called out that I thought the tiger must be dead, and a spare torch was lighted, and the blazing brand pitched on the tiger's body. No change in the posture of the animal taking place, and feeling sure he was dead, my friends gradually approached, and the verdict was unanimously given —"dead as a herring." Cramped with the position in which I had so long remained, and weakened by the exertion of body and mind I had undergone, when I tried to descend from the tree I found I was unable to do so. My rescuers, however, quickly hauled me down, placing me in a reclining state on the grass, and made me drink some brandy and water from a flask they had, which soon renovated me, and enabled me to give a short account of my adventures. Both buffalo and tiger were dead. In swinging myself into the tree, I had dropped a bottle containing cyanide of potassium, and broken it on the buffalo's neck, at the same time cutting through his skin with the broken glass. When the tiger lapped the blood of his victim he was poisoned by the gaseous inoculation.