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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[8] "The Boy Travellers in Siam and Java," Chapters XI., XII., and
XVIII. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881.