"THE TANTANOOLA TIGER."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1023, 12 January 1911, Page 5

"THE TANTANOOLA TIGER."

, " MORE POLICE.; FINDS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Adelaide,' January. 1JThe police have found five additional sheep-killing, J co?rais ,at .Tantanoola.. All are within a mils of the camp that had been occupied by Edmondson, a wellknown resident, who has been arrested. It is believed the scrub in the surrounding country is honeycombed with similar plants. ' ' A STRANGE FIND. . Some years ago a tiger was' alleged to be at large at- Tantanoola (telegraphed the South Australian-correspondent i of the Sydney "Herald"). • In the absence of evidence of his presence the scare died away, to be superseded by a general belief that, an imaginative' -■ resident had stumbled on n mare's. nest. . Conclusive proof has now been furnished that' the "tiger" had corporal cxistencp l after. all. Early last month, three snipe-shooters found a lair which'revealed an organised system of sheep-stealing and slaughtering unequalled in the annals .of Australian pastoral crimes. "Robbery Under Arms" contains no story of crime moro venturesome and deliberate. Sheep-stealing has been rife in the drainage area for many years, but the utmost • astonishment is expressed at the extraordinarily cjaring system which has''been at Tantaioola apparently for several seasons. Oh December 4, Frank Osborne afld C. F. and J. P. Bnrchard left Tantanoola to shoot snipe on Lake Bonney's flats. While searching in Mr.' James Chat's big scrub paddock, l Osborne's attention was arrested, by a dreadful stench. He traced tho origin of'the smell to a.derive clump of ti-trco half a* mile away.' Tho thicket seemed impenetrable, but among •tjie fringe of; low shrubs Ogborno-noticed a wsll-worn path .winding through the undergrowth. Kg followed it and was astonished to find that it led to tho face of a high palisade of ti-tr-ee. behind the •thick bush,' cunningly planted in the -mud, he discovered a* narrow race leading to the heart 1 of the .jungle. Osborne pluckily ventured into the'winding pa£sage for a distance of 25 yards, and found a. corral 20ft. by 30ft.'hewn out of tho solid jungle. The place was like a shamble.

Freshly-killed sheep and lambs were strewn in all directions. On overhead wires drawn from wall to ivall lone lines of' skins were drying with' the flesh still red . and wet. Osborne 16ft tho snot, and returned with 0. Burchard, who hud also boeh:investigating. They-counted 13 skins on the wires,, and 15 $heep just killed. Here and there were carcasses in various stages of decay, ha]f buried'in the dreadful mire. Burchahl wad«d to the end of the corral, and found another race leading deeper into the labyrinth:. Ho followed it and found a veritable chamber of horrors.-: In a larger corral, niled two and three deep, were the bodies of 42 sheep and lambs, freshly 'killed, and .moi'o wire and skins. All the sheep bore Jlr. James Chant's brand. Only •a ' couple of days had elapsed since .the killing, but innumerable bones and skulls gnd putrid filth revealed the magnitudo of the 'tiger's" operations.. J; Burchard found tne stench too strong, and jvns unable to venture through the first .passage. No time was lost.in'placing the facts before tho proner authorities, special officers investigating, and, tho strictest secrecy being- observed.. A few facts, however, transpired . recently, and "tho tiger's lair" has become quite a showplace among people aware of its existence.