Tiger hunting

“ I have already described the keen power of scent possessed by this wary animal, which necessitates extreme caution, and the placing of the guns in positions elevated about 10 feet above the ground. It is seldom of any use to drive jungles upon speculation, although it not unfrequently happens, where tigers are plentiful, that when driving for deer the grander game unexpectedly appears, and presents itself suddenly before the astonished hunter. The recognised system of tiger-hunting by driving is as follows. ”

“ On the floor of the trap is placed a board which acts on a spring, and the instant the tiger goes inside and steps upon it the trap door falls and the animal is a prisoner. Natives then come and lift the cage on to a wagon and carry it off in triumph.
In hunting a tiger does not always have its own way. Curiously enough it is often baulked of its prize by a band of insignificant monkeys. When these little creatures discover a tiger, if they feel in the mood for it, they begin to mob the beast. ”

“ The tiger-hunters form what may be called a brigade or corps, and may be called on for military service. They were conspicuous objects in the Kur-dong, with their long matchlock guns, loose blue uniforms, and conical-crowned, broad-brimmed hats. The tiger appears on the Royal standard, and tigers’ skins are the insignia of high office, the leopard skins, indicating lower rank. The Chinese give a very high price for tigers’ bones as a medicine, considering them a specific for strength and courage. Tiger-hunting as a business seems confined to the northern provinces. ”

“ In those days hunting was more like work than sport, and tigers were still a menace to humanity, such as we can hardly now conceive. There was great merit in hindering a tiger from escaping then; but to-day that matters little. Such an event as the song describes is not uncommon still. I have heard credibly of about a dozen like it among contemporaries in Burma in the last twenty-four years. Men seeking deer or other [310] game are suddenly confronted by a tiger similarly engaged. If the men make way for him, he merely shows his teeth and swiftly escapes, and that is what generally happens. ”

“ Tigers are shot in India, not as game is in England for hunting, to give amusement to men, horses and dogs, not as in pheasant or partridge shooting, with a remote reference to the demands of the table, but to save the lives of the natives and their cattle. If you don't kill the tiger he will kill you. ”

“ The savage animal still charged, the horse plunged and the Major slashed, and so the fight went on—charge, plunge, slash, until the Colonel came riding up with his spear, and soon put an end to the career of the ferocious boar.
The next time the Major and Colonel Myles went out to hunt they went after tigers.
Tiger hunting is very popular among the white residents of India, and it is well that it is, for the natives do not often succeed so well in their hunts after tigers, as the tigers succeed in their hunts after the natives. ”

“ In making a charge the tiger utters a series of short vicious coughing growls, as trying to the nerves as the most terrific roar. Tiger-hunting, even from elephant-back, is always accompanied with danger. One day when Captain Baldwin and a friend were out beating the bush for tigers, one of his beaters, a fine young man, 'foolishly crept forward to try and discover the actual spot where the tiger was hiding. ”

“ According to my own experience, there can be no comparison in the sport of hunting up a tiger upon a good elephant in open country, and the more general plan of driving forest with guns placed in position before a line of beaters. By the former method the hunter is always in action, and in the constant hope of meeting with his game, while the latter method requires much patience, and too frequently results in disappointment. Nevertheless, to kill tigers, every method must be adopted according to the conditions of different localities. ”

“ With good hunting-dogs fine jaguar- and puma-hunting might be obtained on the banks of this river, where without doubt they are exceedingly numerous. Many of the Indian hunting-dogs trained for deer or tapir will hunt tigers. When on the track of either of these animals, should they come across the scent of a tiger, their eager and confident manner of pressing on after the game is immediately changed, and with hair on their backs erect they become cautious and nervous to a degree, jumping at even the snapping of a twig. Abandoning the hunt they take up the tiger’s track and follow it. ”

“ The village folk dared move from place to place only in strongly armed parties. It is well known that a tiger will seldom attack a band of people unless it is very hungry and there are no men in the party. The situation was becoming desperate. The Judge sent for the Colonel of a neighboring regiment who was an experienced tiger hunter, to advise him. The two consulted as to the best method of destroying the man-eater, for the week's events showed that it was a more than ordinarily clever brute. ”

“ Tigers are occasionally trapped in that region by baiting a pit with a dog or pig, and the ensnared animal is destroyed by poison or hunger to avoid injury to the skin, which, if it is that of a fine animal, is very valuable.
A man is not the least ashamed of saying that he has not nerve or pluck for tiger-hunting, which in Korea is a dangerous game, for the hunters are stationed at the head of a gorge, usually behind brushwood, and sometimes behind rocks, the big game, tigers and leopards, being driven up towards them by [Pg 151] large bodies of men. ”

“ The hunting-grounds are almost entirely among the mountains, as the valleys are too densely occupied with rice and millet fields and cultivated soil, to allow game to exist or be hunted. The chief weapon used is the flint-lock, imported from Japan. With this a single hunter will attack the huge game, although the animal, when not immediately killed, leaps right upon his enemy and easily makes him his prey. When a tiger has caused great ravages in a district, the local magistrate calls together all the professional hunters and organizes a hunt in the mountains. ”

“ When a tiger pest appears near a village all energies are turned towards encompassing its destruction, for neither man nor beast is safe where it lives.
On one occasion a splendid tiger was seen lurking near a cattle compound, and the authorities forthwith pronounced its doom. The village huntsman was detailed to the work and in a few days he rid the place of the brute and in a most ingenuous manner. He found a path in the jungle which he knew the tiger used on its way to drink, and he laid a trap for it. ”

“ Occasionally the first man misses his aim, and his pike breaks; then all is over for one, if not both. The most common method of hunting the tiger has more [263] actors engaged. There is in every village some experienced man who leads the attack; and if any one has been carried off by one of these animals, the tam-tam is sounded to summon people from the neighbouring villages to follow this leader after the creature. As he always sleeps near the spot where he has left the remains of his repast, they are pretty sure of discovering his retreat. ”

“ Travellers generally place a kind of canopy on their backs, in which two or three persons can sit; but the saddle is most used when hunting tigers. They dexterously catch these animals upon their tusks, if the attack be made in front, but the tiger will sometimes seize them in the flank, when if they cannot roll upon him, the elephants rush forward, and the tiger is generally shot. The assertion that the elephant and rhinoceros will fight a duel for the pleasure of the thing, does not seem to be borne out by experience ”

“ In winter they supply with game—deer, boars, antelope, hares, pheasants and partridges—the Peking market, bringing them there frozen from remote corners of their country.
Among the big game in the northern part of the Chinese Empire the first place properly belongs to tigers and leopards. In Korea tigers are quite common, and a special corps of tiger hunters was kept up until recently by the Government. The usual method of killing tigers is to make a pitfall in a narrow path along which one has been found to travel, and on either side of it a strong fence is erected. ”

“ While their parents are hunting, the babies lay as still as mice in the tall grass or in the lair. The smell of the Tigers warns other animals of their nearness, and they are given a wide berth, for the presence of the parents are suspected, though they may be miles away on a hunting trip, and no beast cares to encounter the Tiger, for he is the king of the Asiatic animals and has the right of way in the jungle. ”

“ Notwithstanding the danger of still-hunting a tiger in the tangle of its lair, one cannot but feel richly rewarded for the risk when one begins to sum up one's observations. The most interesting result of investigating an oft-frequented lair is concerning the animal's food. That a tiger always devours its prey upon the spot where it is taken or in the adjacent bush is an erroneous idea. This is often true when the kill is too - 52 - heavy to be carried for a long distance, but it is by no means universally so. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the mode of hunting generally adopted in Central Africa is far more dangerous than the careful contrivances of India, where the tiger, as fully described, is hunted either upon elephants or by posting the guns in secure positions. ”

“ They often also consider it unlucky to mention his name, and talk of him as a jackal, precisely as in Sweden a bear is never talked of as such.
Sitting up for a tiger over a kill or bait is the least amusing and least certain of any method of hunting him, but often in large forests which cannot be beaten, or where the sportsman is single-handed and without elephants, it is the only way to get a shot.
‘THE FRONT RANK AND PART OF THE SECOND ALONE STOOD FIRM’
The erection of the platform, or ‘machan,’ too frequently disturbs the tiger and drives him away. ”

“ The heat of May has scorched up the covert and the water, except in a few pools where a fringe of vegetation still lingers, and the tiger can still find a mid-day lair. Here the hunters seek him, and, whether we look at the quarry they pursue or the picturesque surroundings of the day’s excitement, it must be confessed that tiger-shooting has no rival in all the range of sport. ”

“ Tigers can sneak crouchingly along as fast as they can trot, and it is wonderful how silently they can steal on their prey. They seem to have some stray provident fits, and on occasions make provision for future wants. There are instances on record of a tiger dragging a kill after him for miles, over water, and through slush and weeds, and feasting on the carcase days after he has killed it. ”

“ They knew by the roar of pain that he was hit. Tigers are clever and often feign death when wounded. They dared not descend. They were not sure that he was killed. At any moment he might attack their tree. Comrades in enterprise and fear, they sat gripping each other in the darkness, for the moon had now set.
The villagers had heard the shot and at day-break came to the spot. They found the tiger lying dead at the foot of the hillock. The heroes could barely descend from the machan, so stiff and aching were their bones. ”

“ In this peculiarity the ordinary man-eating tiger differs from all others, as the cattle-killer is almost certain to return on the following night to the body which it only partially devoured after the first attack. If the hunter has the taste and patience for night shooting, he will construct a hiding-place within 10 yards of the dead body. This should be arranged before noon, in order that no noise should disturb the vicinity towards evening, when the tiger may be expected to return. A tree is not a favourable stand for night shooting, as the foliage overhead darkens the sight of the rifle. ”

“ This forms the principal excitement of tiger-shooting in high grass, as the sport may last for hours, especially if there are only two or three guns in a long line of elephants. If there is no heavy forest at hand, but only grass jungle, no tiger should be allowed to escape if the management is good, and the patience of the hunters equal to the occasion. ”

“ Tiger-shooting is always an engrossing sport, but the lively excitement is increased when you follow a wounded tiger upon foot. We now slowly advanced upon the track, which faintly showed the sharp claws where the tiger had alighted in every bound. The jungle was fairly open, as the surface was stony, and the trees for want of moisture in a rocky soil had lost their leaves; we could thus see a considerable distance upon all sides. In this manner we advanced about 100 yards without finding a trace of blood, and I could see that some of my people doubted the fact of the tiger being wounded. ”

“ When the presence of one of these scourges becomes known in a district, they place some dainty bait on the bank of the river where he drinks and plants himself every night, and they form an ambush among the thickets, taking care to mark the direction of the wind. It is not long before the tiger directs his steps towards the enticing booty, and the hunters’ arrows or musket-balls stretch him dead, in most cases, before he can seize it. ”

“ I have known tigers that have been hunted many times, but who have always escaped by this peculiar dodge, and such animals are exceedingly difficult to kill. In such cases I am of opinion that no shouts or yells should be permitted, but that the line should advance, simply beating the stems of trees with their sticks; at the same time six or eight natives with their matchlocks should be placed at intervals along the line to fire at the tiger should it attempt to break through the rear. ”