A TIGER HUNT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 100, 4 December 1852, Page 10

A TIGER HUNT.

(From the French of M. Arago.)

Jep, of whom I am about to tell you Avas a guacho, a little man—all sinew, muscle, nerve —at the most not five feet in height. The constant habit of riding had made him boAv-legged ; the use of the cigarette had blackened to the colour of ebony his fingers and his teeth; he Avas perpetually smoking, unceasingly so, and never went to sleep Avithout a quid of tobacco in his mouth. In the whole course of his life Jep had never tasted a drop of wine, or taken

a glass of rum ; water, garlick, onions, bread, and a small portion of heel or dried horse flesh constituted the whole of his food. How many tigers have you killed ? I enquired of him one day when we met in a cafe at Monte Video. " 1 have never kept account," he replied, " but I have taken twenty five with the lasso." " They tell me, hoAvever, that you and your son have nearly depopulated the Avhole country." " They belie me," said Jep, emptying his glass with avidity ; "my stiletto has killed a great number it is true, but my son will make up for my defects; he is the chap, and up to the present time he has never missed a single Jaguar (American tiger) with his lasso. He is my pupil; he will retrieve my faults. But if you like," he continued, " to accompany me, I leave to-morrow for the Pampas, and I promise you to take you to such sport as will leave a lasting impression on your memory." I Avillingly accepted so cordial an invitation.

The gaucho is a true centaur ; when he mounts his horse to leave, he is in a moment beyond the horizon. When he hears the tigers howl he is all animation and joy, as if he had been invited to a fete. A felt hat with an enormous brim, tied by a riband under his chin, covers his head, a hole cut in the centre of a round piece of cloth forms a kind of cloak, called a poncho in the country. It is under this that he shelters his shoulders ; the hide of the upper part of a horse's legs turned inside out, serves him for boots and envelopes his feet except the holes for the spur which enter a very small triangular stirrup ; his cuottes are also of horse-side, and in his right hand he holds a very long line or cord, fastened at both ends to a kind of saddle tightly girted on the companion of his toil and partner of his perils. With these, thus equipped, the guacho penetrates into the most profound solitudes ; he braves the pamperos, the inexhaustible plains of South America composed of luxuriant grass, through which you may travel 900 miles without seeing a single Aveed, and returns to Monte Video with a booty nobly acquired, I can assure you. The guacho's lasso may he from forty to forty two yards in length; and he holds it in such a manner that when throAvn it forms in turning two running knots, or nooses, Avhich ought to entangle the beast against which they are thrown. Follow me and the guacho, and you will see as terrible a game as it is possible to conceive. The tiger is there—the rapid and bounding jaguar, like the panther in agility and strength, supple as a reptile, ferocious as the tiger of Asia, and visiting, like it, the burial grounds to plunder the graves of the dead. They meet. The guacho's horse knows if he turns he loses his protector, so he meets the enemy face to face; his master briefly encourages him in monosyllables, but Avhich are perfectly understood, for the sagacity of the animal is great. His knees slightly tremble, his nostrils dilate and shut, exhaling to a distance a thick, foggy, vapour; his ears are erected, as well as his mane, and his flaming eyes are rivetted on those of the tiger. Oh! for the pencil of a Vernet or a Landseer to give you a picture of this momentous and imposing scene. The guacho then says to himself, " Take care, Jep. There is your enemy, he who Avould dispute with you these immense plains ; let him not conquer you, or your comrades Avill speak of you only with contempt. Be on your guard, Jep, and you Avill carry Avith you that fine skin to Monte Video or Buenos Ayres and it will fetch five or six piastres ; let it be said that you took it at the first cast of the lasso." Twenty-five paces at the most separate the two combatants; they approach other still nearer, and Jep, the guacho, utters not a Avord ; the lasso continues to whirl in the air ; Jep pierces the flank of his horse with his immense trident spurs ; the tiger crouches to make a spring ; the lasso, more rapid, is let fly; the tiger is encircled, as if by a boa constrictor; and Jep trails after him the ferocious beast captive! When the latter becomes giddy and partly exhausted, Jep stops, dismounts, and, arming himself with tAVO poig-. nards, plunges them into the tiger's heart. The skin is free from any other wound, and Jep's reputation will receive no stain. If, however, the lasso had been ill directed, if the tiger had seized the chest or flank of the horse, the guacho draAvs from their sheath his two poignards, and without descending, fights the foaming beast, forces them into his body, and makes him let 'go his hold. Two minutes are sufficient, the lasso re-adjusted, and thrown anew, and there are feAV examples Avhere the guacho has failed twice of his victim. But then, ashamed

? of his mal-address, the guacho abandons his I prey to the myriads of vultures flying above his | head, returns to the city, and asserts he has [ found no tiger in his rides. These hunting exJ cursions of the guacho are often of several months' duration. The tiger hunt is a danges rons sport, and in America, as in Asia, the ' sportsmsn does not always return to his home, | and a pleasure is often purchased by many rei grets and tears.