THRILLING ADVENTURE WITH A TIGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9142, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THRILLING ADVENTURE WITH A TIGER.

Mr. Cutiibert Fraser (says the Deccan Times) had a miraculous escape from a tiger the other day at Atnraoti, and it gives the following account of it: —The lucky hero of this adventure is a district superintendent of police in Berar. He is well remembered in Secunderabad as Superintendent of the Cantonment Police before Mr. Crawford. A son of Colonel Hastings Fraser, one of the nisei's of Lovat, he has proved his possession of that nerve and courage which rises to the emergency of danger. To quote the graphic account of a correspondent, the escape was about as narrow as man ever had. Mr. Fraser was told by his orderly that a wounded tiger was lying dead with his head on the foot of a tree. The orderly haviDg called him up, he went to the spot. Mr. Fraser then sent the orderly and another man with his second gun back and knelt down to look. Just then the tiger roared and came at him from about eighteen feet off; he waited till the tiger was within five feet of him and fired. As the tiger did not drop, he fired his second shot hurriedly. The first shot had hit exactly in the centre of the face, but just an inch too low. It knocked the tiger's right eye out, and smashed all the teeth of that side of the jaw. The second shot struck the tiger in the chest, but too low. What happened then Mr. Fraser does not exactly know, but he next found himself lying in front of the tiger, one claw of the beast's right foot being hooked into his left leg, in this way trying to draw Mr. Fraser towards him ; the other paw was on his right leg. Mr. Fraser's chin and coat were covered with foam from the beast's mouth. He tried hard to draw himself out of the tiger's clutches. Fortunately the beast was not able to see him, as Mr. Fraser was a little to one side of the animal's blind side, and the tiger's head was up. Suddenly seeing Mr. Fraser's orderly bolting, he jumped up and went for the man, and catching him, he killed him on the spot. Mr. Fraser had lost hat, rifle, and all his cartridges, which had tumbled out of his pocket. He jumped up, however, and ran to the man who had his second gun, and to do so had to go within eight paces of the spot where the tiger was crouching over his orderly. He heard, in fact, the crunching of the man's bones, and saw the tiger biting the back of the head. He now took the gun from his man. The latter said that he had fired both barrels into the tiger, one when he was crouching over Mr. Fraser, and the other when he was over the prostrate body of the orderly. The man had fired well and true, but just too far back in his anxiety not to hit the men he would save instead of the tiger. When afterwards asked if he was not afraid to hit the Sahib, "I was very much afraid indeed," he replied, "but dil mazbut Jcarke lagaya, I nerved myself for the occasion." " A good man and true !" a high officer writes, " who after firing never moved an inch till Mr. Fraser came to him, although close to the tiger all the while. He is one of the Gawilghur Rajputs—a brave race, Ranjit Singh, a good name." The man said lie had no more cartridges left, and so they both got a little further from the tiger, as the orderly was evidently done for. Afterwards they found one more cartridge for the gun and tried to recover the body but it was no use. The tiger was lying close, most of the buffaloes had bolted, and the Kurkoos would not help. Mr. Fraser then sent six miles off for an elephant. But the animal did not arrive till dark, so Mr. Fraser went home in great grief about the poor orderly and at having to leave the body. His own wound was bleeding a great deal, it being a deep claw gash. Next day they got the body and the tiger dead lying close to each other. Perhaps no narrower escape than Mr. Fraser's has ever been heard of. To the excellent shot which knocked the beast's eye out he undoubtedly owes his life. He says that he felt that he had the tiger dead when he fired, but the express bullet unfortunately , broke up.