HUNTING SCENES IN INDIA.—PURSUIT OF THE TIGER ON FOOT AND WITH ELEPHANTS.
The curiosity of the boys to learn about the wild animals of India was awakened by their meeting with Captain Whitney, the famous hunter, and they were greatly delighted when they found him entirely willing to speak of his exploits and describe incidents of a hunter's life. The stormy day at Simla was, therefore, utilized to the fullest extent, and the stories of the gallant captain found a place in the note-books of both Frank and Fred.
We will let Captain Whitney give the account of his hunting experience, as nearly as we can, in his own words. The boys listened attentively to the stories, and afterward wrote them out from memory, and from the notes they had taken while sitting at the table in the parlor of the hotel where the conversation occurred.
"There are not as many tigers in India now as there were twenty years ago," said the captain, "thanks to the perseverance of the hunters and the bounties offered by the Government; but we have quite enough of them left, as you will understand when I tell you that in the Madras presidency alone, for the quarter ending September 30th of last year, the destruction by tigers and leopards amounted to 366 bullocks, 413 cows, 151 calves, 87 buffaloes, 112 sheep, 114 goats, 20 horses or ponies, and 15 donkeys. The number of human lives destroyed in the same time is not stated, but it is officially recorded that in six years 13,401 people were killed by wild beasts in the Bengal presidency; 4218 of them by tigers, 4287 by wolves, 1407 by leopards, and 105 by bears; the rest by other wild animals. In the year 1871 the total number of deaths in India by snakes and wild animals was 18,078, and about three-fourths of these were caused by snakes; in 1869, 14,529 persons lost their lives by snake-bites, and you therefore see that serpents are more dangerous than tigers.
"A tiger that has once tasted human flesh is ever afterward disinclined to hunt for other game. He has learned how easy it is to kill a man, and how little risk he runs in doing so, and his instinctive dread of the human race seems to disappear altogether. Such a tiger is known as a 'man-eater;' he lies close to the paths where the natives pass and pounces upon them suddenly, and he has the shrewdness to change his locality a little after each slaughter. It is officially reported that in one district a man-eating tiger killed 127 persons in a short time, and caused a complete suspension of business on the road for many weeks. Another tiger killed 150 persons in three years, compelled the abandonment of many villages, and threw 250 square miles of country out of cultivation. The Government offered a thousand dollars for the head of this tiger, and he was finally killed by an officer of the army.
"There are several ways of killing the tiger," the captain continued, "and every hunter of experience and daring tries them all. The safest plan for a novice is to still-hunt, or bait, as we call it, and for this purpose we find where a tiger has killed a bullock and partly eaten him. We know he will return to finish his meal, or rather to make another; if there is a tree near by, we rig up a shelter and resting-place among the limbs, and early in the evening climb up there and wait. We have a couple of sharp-eyed natives with us, and they keep a steady watch for the beast. Sometimes he comes at dusk, sometimes two or three hours later, and sometimes not at all, and you have your night's watch in a tree for nothing; but if he comes you must be very careful about your aim, and try to bring him down at the first shot, since you are very unlikely to get a second. It is no easy matter to shoot a tiger in the dim light that you have under the circumstances, and many a skilful hunter has had the chagrin of seeing the brute escape.
TIGER HUNTING FROM A MYCHAN, OR SHOOTING-BOX.
"The native princes have a way of hunting tigers from mychans, or stands, but it is not much practised by Europeans. The stands are placed along a valley where a tiger is likely to run when driven from his retreat in the jungle, and some of these runs are so well known that the mychans are permanently built of stone, and fitted up with more or less luxury. I was once invited by a native prince to join him in a hunt of this sort, and of course I accepted. We were in a kind of fort on the bank of a stream, and while waiting for the tiger we were seated in comfortable arm-chairs, and received the liberal hospitality of the prince. After an hour or two the beaters who had been sent out succeeded in driving up a fine tiger; we heard the sound of their drums and tom-toms coming nearer and nearer, and suddenly out rushed the tiger and made for the water. The prince fired, and I also fired; but somehow the beast got away, though, we felt sure he was wounded.
"Some of the native princes will not allow the tigers on their property to be killed by Englishmen, but preserve them for their own hunting. They have even been known to let loose two or three tame tigers when they have a distinguished guest to entertain, and wish to make sure that he will have game to shoot at. Once, when a native prince was entertaining an English officer of high rank, he got up a grand tiger-hunt after the fashion I have just described, and the tigers came so near that two of them were killed by the guest. When the second was shot the whole party went from the mychan to where the dead animal was lying. The prince was embarrassed, and the guest astonished, to find that the tiger had a collar around his neck, with the name of the former engraved on it.
"Another way of hunting the tiger is with elephants, and the more of them you have the better. It is a very expensive mode of hunting, as it requires a great number of men and elephants, and therefore is not very common. When the Prince of Wales was here there was a grand tiger-hunt, in which he took part; there were several of these expeditions, in fact, but the greatest of all was given by Sir Jung Bahadoor, a native prince of enormous wealth. Five hundred and odd elephants were brought out on that occasion, and the spectacle was one of the finest ever seen in the country."
The captain paused a moment, and then resumed:
"Hunting with elephants is attended with some risk, partly because the tiger may spring upon the elephant and attack the hunters in the howdah, but more especially because the elephant may take fright and run through the forest quite out of the control of his driver. The howdah is swept off, and its occupants are very fortunate if they escape with whole skins.
"The way we do it is this. We surround a forest or piece of jungle where we know a tiger is concealed, provided we have elephants enough to do so, and then we move slowly in toward the centre, and make a terrific noise with drums and other unmusical instruments. The tiger tries one part of the line and then another, to escape, and in doing so he exposes himself to our shots. We generally succeed in bringing him down before he has done any damage, but are not always so fortunate.
"On my first tiger-hunt of this sort I had an exciting experience. I was assigned to an elephant that was said to be very steady and not easily frightened; I had a Remington rifle, carrying a large ball, and kept my cartridges handy, so that I could load and fire with great rapidity. While we were closing up the line I saw a large tiger trying to pass out of the forest, and immediately drew my rifle to the shoulder and fired.
AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT.
"I wounded him in the side, but did not disable him. He turned, with a frightful roar, and made straight for me, and the elephant started to run as soon as the roar reached his ears. Before I could get in a second shot the tiger was on the elephant's rump and climbing directly to where I stood; but I settled him with a bullet in his brain, and he fell to the ground. The driver succeeded in stopping the runaway elephant, and as we came around to where my prize was lying I put in another ball, to make sure of his death, and the gentleman on the next elephant did the same.
"Perhaps you may smile at our putting a couple of balls into a tiger that appeared to be dead, but you wouldn't if you knew the brute and his treacherous ways. Many a tiger has lain as if dead till somebody walked up to him; then he sprung to his feet, and in several instances he has torn the hunter to pieces. A friend of mine was terribly wounded in this way by a tiger that had already received four balls; he was lying on his side on the ground exactly as though he had breathed his last, and my friend walked quite around him and threw a piece of turf against his side without causing the least motion. Then he considered it safe to apply his tape-line to take the measurement of his game, and as he did so the tiger reared and seized him. Another gentleman was close by, and he settled the tiger with a bullet in his side, but not till my friend's arm was nearly torn from its socket.
PROCESSION OF TIGER-HUNTERS ON FOOT.
"The favorite mode with all true sportsmen is to hunt on foot, and, for those whose means will not allow the expense of hunting with elephants, it is to be preferred, on account of its cheapness. Two or more gentlemen organize the party, or a man may have no partner, if he chooses, and keep all the game to himself. Any number of natives, from twenty upward, are required, and the more you have the better. There is a shikarry, or chief huntsman, who leads the party; he watches the tracks of the tiger, or the drops of blood, if the animal is wounded, and is constantly stooping on the ground to discover the desired traces.
"Behind the shikarry come the hunters, usually two of them, and they keep their rifles ready cocked, so as to shoot on the instant. Then follow two of the steadiest natives with the spare guns to hand to their employers the moment they are wanted, and behind the gun-bearers is the band armed with half a dozen drums, a dinner-bell, horns, tom-toms, pistols, and other things for getting up a noise, and the greater the noise is, the better. Then there are men who throw stones in front of the party, and stir up a tiger who may be lying concealed in the bushes, and there are spearmen on the right and left of the line, to keep the beaters together when passing through tall grass. There are two or three men whose duty is to climb trees and watch for any movements of the game. The procession moves very slowly, as it is necessary to be cautious, to prevent the escape of the tiger, and also to save the members of the party from injury if possible.
A GRAPPLE WITH A TIGER.
"The greatest danger of hunting on foot is in following up a tiger that has been wounded. It is never safe to venture alone into the jungle where such an animal has fled, even if there is good reason to believe he is dead; he may spring out at any moment, and his wound makes him desperately courageous. Once a party of us was advancing in this way, and came to a little clearing, where all traces of the tiger suddenly ceased; we had followed him by his blood, and the trail was so evident that we all thought he must have bled to death. While we were standing in the clearing, and wondering which way to go, there came a roar as though from beneath our feet, and the next instant the tiger rose from a little ditch not three yards from where I was standing. He sprung on my friend Major Rice, and threw him to the ground, and we all thought the major was killed. I fired as best I could, but did not succeed in killing the tiger, as I was fearful of hitting the major; then the shikarry handed me my loaded gun, and I fired again, with no better success. At the second shot the tiger seized Rice by the shoulder, and began dragging him away; I followed closely, and finally brought the brute down with a bullet through his skull. I gave him another, to make certain, and then we ran forward and pulled the major from under the tiger's body. He was not severely hurt beyond his arm, which was badly bitten, but the wounds healed in a few weeks, and he was as well as ever. The tiger measured eleven feet and one inch from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, and I sent the skin to a friend in England.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
"I once had a narrow escape from a tiger that I had been pursuing and wounded with a couple of balls. It was among some low hills about fifty miles from here, and there was very little forest in that part of the country. We were following him, and had come to a halt for a few moments in consequence of losing the trail; I was separated from the rest of the party, with only my gun-bearer near, when suddenly the tiger came bounding out of the forest and making directly for me. There was no chance of running, and my only dependence was on my rifle. I raised it and fired, and luckily enough hit him in the mouth and sent the ball crashing through his skull. He fell dead, and was not two yards from my feet as he struck the ground. It was one of the narrowest escapes I ever had."
Frank asked what was the length and weight of the largest tigers killed in India.
"As to that," answered the captain, "there is considerable dispute. I have shot twenty-one tigers, and kept a careful record of the measurements, which I always took myself; and if an Englishman was present I had him go over the figures and apply the tape-line, to make sure I was correct. The average length of my tigers is nine feet seven and a half inches. The longest one I ever shot measured eleven feet and seven inches, and the longest I ever knew anybody to kill measured twelve feet six inches. I have heard on good authority of several tigers over twelve feet, and two of exactly twelve feet; but I have grave doubts of thirteen-foot tigers, and still graver ones of fourteen-footers. As to the weight I cannot speak, as I never saw a tiger weighed, but they are very heavy in proportion to their size. They are all muscles and sinews, and in an old tiger the work of cutting through the tendons and muscles of the leg is like dissecting a section of wire cable. He hasn't an ounce of fat, and his body when stripped of the skin forms the finest anatomical specimen you can imagine. The sinews will turn the edge of the hardest knife. Dissect a powerful bull side by side with a tiger, and the bull will appear as flabby and boneless as a jelly-fish by comparison with the other beast.
"I once saw a fight between a tiger and crocodile. It was on the bank of the Koosee River, where I had been out stalking antelope, and had sat down for a few minutes to rest. The river abounds in crocodiles, and, on looking at a little sand-bank close to the opposite shore, I saw several of their snouts just above the surface of the water. While I was thinking about taking a shot at one of them for the sake of practice, I heard a crackling in the bushes, and a huge tiger appeared at the edge of the river not ten yards from the crocodiles. Then I felt sure there would be some excitement.
"The tiger was thirsty and hot, and as he lapped the water he settled nearly half his body into it. Instantly one of the dark snouts moved toward him, but so gently that there was not the least ripple on the surface of the river.
"Within three feet of the tiger the snout disappeared. In an instant it rose again like lightning, the great jaws were opened, and in the same instant the tiger's head was enclosed between them.
"Then there was a terrible struggle. The tiger was powerful, and so was the crocodile. It was the tiger's fight for life, while for the crocodile the combat was not a light one.
"The tiger's head is so strong that even the jaws of a crocodile, powerful as they are, cannot readily break it. In this case the tiger's head was not crushed, or he would have been instantly killed, and the fight brought to an end at once.
"They lashed the shallow water near the sand-bar into a mass of foam. Twice the tiger got his feet planted on the bottom, and fairly drew his antagonist out of the water. They rolled over and over, the crocodile maintaining his hold, which the tiger vainly attempted to break. At last they rolled into deep water, and as the tiger could get no footing he was carried below. The crocodile had the best of it, and disappeared in the depths of the river with his prey."
The captain closed his stories of tiger-hunting with the above anecdote, and then turned to other topics. He told about "pig-sticking," or chasing the wild boar of India, and said that many persons preferred it to tiger-hunting, for the reason that it affords a fine opportunity for a ride across the country, and has its full share of danger.
"Many a horse and many a man," said he, "have come to grief on the tusks of an old boar, and there is not a hunter in the country who cannot tell of narrow escapes. Great skill is required in handling the spear; the horse must be well trained, and the rider have perfect confidence in his steed.
A WILD BOAR ATTACKING A PANTHER.
"Eight or ten is the usual number for a boar-hunt, and each man is mounted on his favorite horse. The pigs are driven out of the jungle by the native beaters on foot, and when they emerge into the open country the hunters pursue them. No fire-arms are used, the only weapons being sharp-pointed spears about eight feet long. Servants follow the party with bundles of spears to replace those broken or lost, and in an exciting day's sport each hunter will require a change of spears at least half a dozen times. A boar will run very fast when he has an open stretch of country before him and a pack of hunters is at his heels. The hunter must come up so as to pierce the fleeing animal with his spear, and it often requires a good many attacks to lay him low.
"The boar is very apt to turn when he feels the prod of a spear and charge upon his pursuers, and he can inflict terrible wounds with his tusks. It is in avoiding these charges that the horse and rider display their confidence in each other, and exercise their combined skill. The well-trained horse directs his course so as to bring the pig on his rider's right hand, and immediately after the blow is made he swerves away to the left. An experienced horse needs no guidance, but a verdant one must be directed by the rein, and it takes a very skilful hunter to attend to a horse and stick a pig at the same time."
The captain's talk drifted to elephants, but, as the boys had been at the elephant-catching establishment in Siam and learned how these huge beasts are shot and entrapped, they did not make any notes of the narrative.[8] They had stories of leopards and bears, of hyenas and wolves, and of several other wild animals in India, till it was late in the evening and bedtime had arrived. They heartily thanked Captain Whitney for the information he had given them, and wished him every possible success in the expedition he was about to make, and then they said "Good-night" and retired.