ADVENTURE WITH A TIGER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 342, 4 March 1911, Page 2

ADVENTURE WITH A TIGER.

An exciting adventure which befell a surveying party in Assam. The party were working in the Lushai hills adjoining the Cachar district of Asa am, and a tiger appeared at the camp of surveyor Gopal Singh. It sprang at the surveyor and one of his khalasis, but fortunately touched neither of them, and disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Three days later the tiger returned, and seized a khalasi, who was washing his cooking-pots in a stream twenty yards from the camp. A native, armed with a stick, rushed to the rescue, and tried to beat the tiger off. When other men arrived the brute drooped its prey and disappeared again. In spite of the shouts of the natives it seized the plucky native who had gone to the rescue of the first man. Once more it was driven off, and again it returned, this time to seize a third khalasi. Frightened away again, the beast left the camp ; but the party sat up all night, surrounded by a chain of tires. At daybreak they proceeded to a Lushai village. An armed party set off for the abandoned camp to collect the goods left behind. They found, that the tents, bedding, blankets, and tags of rice had been dragged about by the tiger, and on a sight-rule and plane-table were marks of the brute's fangs. When Mr. Williams, the camp officer, met. the party, all ths men were so profoundly affected that not one of them could speak above a whisper. They begged not to be sent back to the same locality, but to be allowed to work for the rest of the field season in the open, cultivated country. The first man seized by the beast died four days afterwards.