A PROBLEM FOR THE TIGER.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 29, 14 April 1911, Page 2

A PROBLEM FOR THE TIGER.

It is nearly ten years ago that tht following incident occurred. Twc salvage divers, Losen and Carl Nobel, were engaged to rescue a scow load of valuable ore which had been sunk in the east;channel of the Indus Delta.

It proved necessary to haul up the ore in buckets —a tedious task, which occupied them three -weeks. On the thirteenth day Losen Nobel, who had been down at work; for an hour or two in the wreck, came up and climbed out upon a float moored close to the the jungle bank. He did not take off his diver’s suit of thick rubber, nor the big headpiece, but sat down in them.

His "tender” Unscrewed the pipe, through which air is pumped into the helmet, to make some trifling repairs, and found I’it 1 ’it necessary ,to cross over for a wrench to the scow, anchored a little way out in the stream.

Losen Nobel sat breathing through the pipe hole. He heard no sound from the bank behind, In fact, he could not have heard well with his head inside the helmet'. 'lhe first intimation he had of danger was a violent shock and feeling himself hurled forward into the water.

With the airpipe , detached, that meant death by - drowning— no man can swim in a diver’s suit. Water gushed into the headpiece ; the clum-. sy rubber suit was filling. But immediately Nobel felt that something was gripping him savagely through the rubber, bearing him through the water by spasmodic jerks. An instant later he was lifted bodily out of the river, and dragged up the bank below the. float. The water which had come into the helmet now ran away, and through the bull’s eyes he caught an indistinct glimpse of his surroundings. He was in high grass, and some large, shadowy object stood over him. Suddenly he was gripped again and again, by what he felt sure were teeth, and he heard an ugly growl.) He knew then what had happened. A tiger had sprung upon him from the bank. It was the. tiger, too, that had dragged him out of .toe river, after knocking him in. j The tiger had dropped him in the high grass. It was clearly puzzled by the looks and smell of its .strange prey. The brute drew back and eyed the diver with disfavour. Perhaps the taste of rubber bad got in its mouth. , I But the big, striped beast was plainly hungry. Suddenly it flew at its quarry - again. Nobel felt and heard its teeth grate horribly on too metal of the helmet. It mauled him about with its paws, grappled him again, and carried him on a few, yards, then turned him over and ( over with a constant suppressed. growling. • ' | Still unable to make him out, to*, beast sat down and looked at | as if to say, “Well, you are a dinappointment !” 1 Nobel lay quiet. Although ton- 1 fused by the rough usage, ho was not seriously injured. The tiger’s teeth had not penetrated his armour. | Out at the scow he now board shouts—bib brother and their assistants—then a shot. Thereupon the tiger laid hold of him again, aid this time carried him for as much'as fifty yards, at a groat pace. It also treated him to another shaking :**, but evidently could obtain no satisfaction, and with a final sough of its breath bormlod aw*? ! A few moments later s friends appeared on the sreur, called out to bin’ it- great *.»Ar-si j He was able to reply ioco*reiy. ‘-.ndj in fact was not badly C* arms and legs there w«rv T*.*ry bU v.* ( marks, where the t 'a tertb h*Aj pinched him through t?»c rusher j Otherwise his diver a suit b;vd served him as well in p'nga as sq the river bottom. 125 V