"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."