Hunting Down a Tiger.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 76

Hunting Down a Tiger.

■-" Early on the third morning- my friend i motored off to Chopan, and returned with the news that the tiger had killed during j the night, and had dragged his kail, and was .marked dowaii in a grand bit of tiger , jungle^ ae&r. the ' main river. All the conditions were favourable, and' we felt certain that at last the tiger's hour was ' come. We collected a number of beaters and Started them on the road to Chopan. A iiatcih 1 of gireen trees marked the mouth 6f' a ' wild, deep, jungley ravine, running up from the main river into the very heart of "the h3ls. Down this ravine a dry, Tocky, boulder-strewn torrent-bed wound its irregular course, and in the shade of thick jungle fringing its banks the tiger, unsuspecting and -gorged with his huge meal, was taking.-his Test. The beat' was to start near the- mouth of the_ ravine, the guns being iposted! -about a_ mile up, and getting to our places necessitated a detour of about two miles.. " Two miles ! Why, that's nothing: ha-lf-an-flour's easy walk," I hear someone say. But this, remember, was a walk through the jungle in a., hill tract of Central India'; the season 'the end of March; 'the time, midday with a hot•weather sun's fierce rays .striking perpendicularly down. Machons were carefully ,tied up," so as to ensure the greatest possible amount of comfort, for discomfort -in a machan means movement or cramp and bad shooting. The "stops" were placed on both flanks of the beat, end presently the distant beating of tom-toms- and the shouting of the beaters proclaimed the commencement of the beat. Again, as in a former beat, a fine stag sambhur, came crashing- through the jungle down the eteep s^de of the ravine on my right;, and stood for a few minutes listening-, not more than twenty yards from my tree. As the shouting of the beaters came gradually nearer, he clattered across -the nullah and' disappeared from view in the jungle on the\ opposite hillside. The beaters had almost arrived now, and still the tiger gave no sign. Presehtlv two, shote in 'slow eucpessiom 'followed by a shout' from my friend on the Wt, told me ihe tiger was dead, and getting down from ' my tree" I hurried across 1 to see. Nine feet ten inches from nose to tip of tail he measured as he~lay at th<e bottom of nullah ; he • had a fine raff, and skin and- teeth were in perfect condition.. , Great was the rejoicing amopg the Korjcue villagers as they bore him back to the village on a stretcher made of stout bamboos;,, for the last 12 or 15 years h^ had taken heaw 'toll of their cattle, and had occasionally also, shown himself not impartial tp human 'beings. No eart£ 'dareS' travel along the roads, in his dominions -by night, for on the roads he was accustomed to walk, and many were the cart? he had held up. and many a fat bullock had he carried off before the eyes o£ the terrified •cartman. His skin and skull have been set up. and make a fine trophy. What a grand life he must hare led this tiger from a tiger's point of view ! Doubtless, by this time, another of his kind has found this .grand range of junirle vacated and entered into possession. — "The Old Tiger of Chopan." by Captain R. E. T. Hogg, in the JBadminton Magazine.