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at full length on a bare spot within thirty yards of us, quietly surveying our proceedings. The contents of two barrels were into him in an instant; but away he dashed, as if nothing was the matter. He appeared to have gone some distance, and we were quite taken by surprise to find him again within ten paces close under the elephant. Here he made a cowardly irresolute attempt at a charge, and walked off with some nine balls in him, without staggering or showing any signs of weakness, although some of them were well planted. We found him, and hit him again repeatedly, driving him from bush to bush, till sunset, when we began seriously to fear we should lose him. He at last grew desperate, and made a charge, in which he was dropped close to the elephant, dying at the eleventh hour, as he ought to have done at first. Although a fine large tiger, he was one of the worst bred I ever saw.

"While following the fresh tracks of a boar this morning, one of the people marked a tiger into the same nullah where we killed the other day. Fireworks, &c., were immediately sent for from the tents, and in the mean time we pugged up the boar, which gave a beautiful run over ground intersected by nullahs, and did four miles in very fair time, before he was blown and came to the charge. Unfortunately, a spear in the shoulder-blade disabled him from showing so good a fight as he promised to have made. We then returned to the tiger, which in his last moments afforded a scene of which I can convey but a faint idea. I have been at the death of a good many tigers; but never till this day did I see one in perfection. We were seated on a low tamarind-tree, which hung over the nullah, and the tiger galloped under us within ten feet. The first volley dropped him at the root of the tree, where he lay struggling for some time, and ended by rolling into the nullah, which was full of water. Here he suddenly recovered himself, and catching sight of us, who were just out of reach, commenced the most desperate exertions to get at us, roaring and dashing about the water in his struggles. He was a large male tiger, and his enormous head, with his glaring eyes fixed upon us, so attracted our attention, that not one of us could look at his gun while reloading; and before we

had finished, the tiger, finding that he could not reach us, had climbed the opposite bank, which was nearly on a level with our seat. Although the breadth of the nullah kept him at safe distance, a thick date-tree, with branches to the ground, concealed him here, and he sat watching our motions and roaring incessantly for several minutes, while we crawled from branch to branch to get a view of him. A Pariah dog, which began barking at him, made him more furious than ever. He crashed through the bush, stood for one instant with tail erect, mad with rage, and the next was dropped dead within five paces of us."

These are detached extracts from the sporting journal of a gallant soldier, who gives the initials L. T.; and bet. ter written descriptions, or glowing with a more adventurous spirit, it has never been our good fortune to meet with. It does indeed seem extraordinary, as L. T. has remarked, the difference of vitality between different tigers. Some would positively seem to be ens dowed with the nine lives which no philosopher will deny are characteristic of the domestic cat; while others expire under a dose of blue-pill that would scarcely administer the quietus to a rabbit. Yet, on the whole, though some die so easily, we hold the tiger to be somewhat of the nature of an annuitant-a species of animal well known to be more invulnerable than Achilles, and warranted against battle, murder, and sudden death. We have lost a great portion of our respect for the lion; in many instances he turns out a rank coward, with as copious a display of white feather as a Spanish aide-de-camp; his surly look is the mask of Captain Bobadil, as the owl's wise expression always reminds us of a mathematician. Our gallant friends of the Deccan seem to have no great awe of the forest chief;-tiger, hog, panther, cheeta, and even the bison, are very often preferred to that dim discrowned king, who, though he calls himself a lion, we fear is nothing but a pretender. It is only "on Afric's burning shore" that he is an actual potentate, hedged in with the divinity that proves his right divine. In Indiawe blush to apply the word to a lion of four legs, however applicable it is to the species who strut on drawingroom carpets on two-he is a humbug! But as a student of natural his

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tory, who takes the humble name of "Bob," justly remarks in a letter to the editor, the animal kingdom in Hindostan seems under a very ineffective police, as it is the easiest thing in the world to pass one's-self off under "alias." "In the pages of your magazine," he says, "I find the words tiger, panther, leopard, and cheeta applied indiscriminately to designate the same animal. S. Y. S., who ought to know better, gives the two first names in one page to a panther-why not call it a lion at once? Another correspondent in your last number, writing evidently of a panther, calls it a leopard. I believe I am correct in stating that only one species, and that not a true leopard, has been discovered in India, viz. the felis jubata, hunting leopard or cheeta. The rose spot of the panther sufficiently distinguishes him from the leopard, whose marks are either single dots, as those of the hunting cheeta, or clusters of dots, as found on the skin of the African leopard. It is perhaps incorrect to call the cheeta a leopard; for his figure and habits, so different from those of the other cats, and his claws, only semi-retractile, seem to separate him from that family, and make him the connect ing link between the genus felis and canis. The bison, found along the range of the western ghauts, is generally described as a buffalo, although as distinct from a buffalo as that animal is from an ox. The samba, which does not bear the most distant resemblance to an elk, is commonly mentioned under the latter name. There are no elks in India."

This we think a judicious letter, and that in future the distinctions between the different animals ought to be more strictly attended to. And yet it is hardly to be expected that each gay Sub. should carry a Buffon or Cuvier at his saddle-bow; and, for all the practical purposes of sport and enterprise, we are prepared to contend that it is sufficient if the animal pursued and conquered be generally known by the name of a leopard, whether it is really a panther or a cheeta. But, however this may be, our impressions of the identity of the various victims of the spear and rifle have received such a shock from the scientific epistle of Bob, that it will be with some diffi.. dence that we shall hereafter, if we have space for it, quote a description

of a lion-hunt-for who can feel certain but that the animal so-called may not be the real Simon Pure after all? And, under these circumstances, we beg to retract any disparaging observations we may have made on the cowardice and pretension of lions in the abstract, and to confine our remarks entirely to the individuals, falsely so called, in the southern territories of the Honourable Company. After this apology, we shall be able to look on Wallace without a blush. But in the case of the tiger there seems to be no mistake. Courage, power, ferocity-jaws of enormous size, the speed of a racehorse, and a spring of forty feet, mark this animal too distinctly to allow him to be mistaken for any other. Once roused-for it requires a little stirring up to put him on his mettle-there is no flinching. Wounded in fifty places, writhing with pain, the great passion of revenge inflates his brutal heart, and he dies with foam covering his hideous lips, and rage gurgling in his horrid throat. We have attended the execution of several cats in the days of our youth. Their expression when wounded, and showing fight against the terrier was sufficiently savage; but imagine what it would be in a monster a hundred times the size, that had never had the slightest taste of civilized life-never fallen asleep on a hearthrug, nor lapped milk out of a saucer! -a scoundrel whose whole existence was a scene of murder, and whose natural good disposition, if he had been born with the temperament ofa Howard or a Heber, must have yielded to the influences of undying hunger and unquenchable thirst! Accidents are, of course, not uncommon in tiger-hunting, and many admirable descriptions of them occur in the Magazine. have only room for the account of the misfortune of Khundoo, the chief of the bheels, in a certain hunting expedition in Candeish :

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"Poor Khundoo, the leader of this choice band, had gone in pursuit of an immense brute, the terror of the neighbourhood, and the very animal which but last year dreadfully mauled one of a party of officers who had gone after him on foot, and killed a bheel beside him dead on the spot. The haunts of this immense brute were well known, and but the day before he had killed, close to each other, two very large buffaloes in the Moolleir Valley. Poor

Khundoo was accompanied by one or two of his own men, and a few village bheels; and whilst hot on the track of the tiger, one of the latter pointed to what he supposed to be it, concealed in a large bush. Khundoo, doubting the eye of any one but a practised hand like himself, scarce looked to the bush at the time, but taunting his companion with his want of knowledge of what a tiger was, went deliberately up to the edge and stooped to look in. Alas! it was too clearly proved that his game was there, for in the twinkling of an eye, a rush, and the fall of poor Khundoo, discovered the tiger. The whole thing was instantaneous; but an instant under the jaws of a tiger is an age. A litter was procured, and while the most part watched down the tiger, the rest bore the wounded man to Moolleir. While this was happening, we were killing a bear in an opposite direction, and on our return to the tents were apprised of what had occurred. Every thing that could be of use was sent to the sufferer, and on our way to avenge his loss we proceeded to the huts where he was lying. At his request we left him to be attended by the native doctors, and proceeded to the elephants; and a short time sufficed to find the tiger. The jungle was extremely thin, in fact scarcely deserving the name of cover; the ground level, with here and there a small nullah; a road ran close by, and in addition to two or three men whom he had killed outright upon it, not a few have been half-dead with terror on hearing his growl within a few feet of them. The natives, who at last well knew his haunts, declared that, contrary to the practice of tigers in general, he would never move off at the near approach of man, but warned him of his danger by a deep growl, which signal was, it may be supposed, readily taken. In some few cases, however, where the warning was either not heard or disregarded, the death or severe wounding of the unfortunate traveller immediately followed, though in no instance had he been known to eat the

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smallest portion of his victim. said above, he was soon found, there being nothing to conceal him, and powder and ball came briskly into play. Whenever he had the opportunity he charged furiously, but was each time luckily stopped. Game to the last, when, surrounded by the elephants, he charged gallantly up a steep bank for Hyder, the guns in whose howdah were by no means idle. Six or eight barrels saluted him in succession from that howdah alone, besides others from the opposite side; a shake of the head and a growl told full true each time that the lead had reached its mark. Still determined, he dragged his bleeding body to the charge, and had with tremendous efforts reached within a few steps of the top of the bank, when a finishing shot from the opposite side took him in the back, and down he rolled dead. A finer specimen of a tiger could not be, either as regards size, beauty, or ferocity.

"We returned to our sick patient: his wounds had been dressed, and all that human aid could do was tried; but what art could save a man in the centre of whose shoulder the teeth of such a monster had actually met? The whole of the bones, from the point of the shoulder to the very neck, were almost I may say ground to pieces, and another awful bite through the neck itself would alone have decided his fate. The whole of these tremendous wounds were the work of an instant, and entirely affected by the teeth; he was untouched by the paws. Unremitted attention from master and doctor proved unavailing, and poor Khundoo, after showing symptoms of delirium, expired at ten on the night of the following day." This, as may be supposed, was a damper to the spirits of the party, though it is equally probable that it increased the enjoyment of flooring the next tiger they came across. It is not an ordinary game-bag that would suffice for such sport, as may be seen by the following measurements given of a tiger and tigress killed near Dharwar:

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If any one will have the kindness to mention a more disconsolate animal than a lieutenant in a garrisontown—even in Edinburgh Castle-we shall be much obliged to him. The peripatetic philosophy is not imbibed by mere walking, or Prince's Street might be made a school of wisdom. What are the occupations he must have recourse to?-for it is impossible he can exist without some sort of occupation, good or bad. He probably either breaks a blood vessel in playing on the flute, or smokes himself into a consumption. He goes occasionally to a ball-he is asked out to dinner in families where the daughters are either all married or all in the nursery. He attends parade-he sees the same faces at mess-he goes the same dull jog-trot round from one year's end to the other, till at last he is only saved from vague ideas of suicide or colonization, by being marched to some other quarters, where the same scene is to be enacted in all its parts. Take, by way of a contrast, a "spurt" taken one day from the camp at Sholapore, by a couple of jolly Subs., and mark how splendid an enjoyment it is to hunt the bristly boar, even though you have no relish for pork-chops. "Intelligence was received of hog about forty miles from camp, and as there was every hope of good sport for one day only, we determined on having that one day; and every thing having been arranged for that purpose, and two of the party, with all the horses, &c., having gone on a head, the remaining two (of whom I was one) got into our palankeens on the night of the 4th October, and at half-past three on the following morning found ourselves at Mohol, twenty miles distant from camp. We slept till daybreak, and then got into a nibbs to go the remaining twenty miles by breakfast. By having a fresh horse laid halfway, we contrived to do it by half-past eight, and reached the tents at the village of Marah, an hour and a half sooner than our friends who had gone in advance had anticipated. The khabur on our arrival we found to be puckha; the hog had been seen there the day before, and we were in the highest possible spirits. A hasty breakfast for we were too eager for the sport to eat much-having been dispatched, by half-past nine we were

on our tats, on the road to the huntingground, which was still three miles distant, and which we reached as nearly as possible by ten o'clock.

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"The jungle is as pretty looking a patch as one would wish to see. stands on the banks of a small river; is about three hundred yards long by a hundred and fifty deep, the rear protected by the river; in front is a fine plain for about four hundred yards, when the ground becomes rather rocky, but still may be considered good. To the right and rear it is much worse; but as we arranged the beaters so that the hog were not likely to take in either of these directions, we were not under any apprehensions on this point. To the left also the ground is good. On looking about us, we began to be sensible that our trouble in coming thus far would be rewarded with success. The large pugs in the bed of the river, and the rooting up in various parts at the borders of the jungle, convinced us that there were not only hog there, but some prime

ones.

The jungle was composed of baubul bushes and grass, in some parts very thick, though not very high; and from all we could gather, we felt convinced it was to be a certain find.

"About ten o'clock the beaters were all in line, with their right brought a little forward, to prevent the hog from taking to the bad ground there-as I have before mentioned. On the extreme right, on the verge of the jungle, were stationed a couple of beaters on an elevated piece of ground, on the look-out, and ready to give us the signal by waving cloths so soon as the hog should start. Immediately opposite to these, but on the left flank, were stationed the hunters, four in number; and our position was such that we were almost certain of seeing the hog as soon as they should clear the thick jungle. These arrangements having been effected, we were waiting in that state of suspense when every minute seems an hour, when the report of a pistol, and the dashing of the beaters into the jungle with a shout that might have been heard for miles around, and must have made the hog prick up their ears a few, made us take a good grip of our bridles, and arrange our seats to be ready for them whenever they should break cover.

"The effects of their shouting were soon evident, and five fine hog were

seen breaking cover. We were immediately at their heels, but the thing was not well managed: it would take up too much time to explain how it was;-but to the fact: only one large sow was killed, and one, after having been twice speared, escaped into a sugar-cane field. One of them reached the jungle again, but where the rest went we could not discover. On returning to the jungle, one hog was perceived about a mile off, taking across a fine plain. We gave chase, and were rapidly closing in on her when she took refuge in a sugar-cane field; it served, however, only to give her ten minutes' breathing-time, at the expiration of which we turned her out. She had not half a mile to go to reach the jungle, and was on the point of entering it, when she was speared through, and dropped dead on the edge.

"The day was exceedingly hot, and while the beaters were being put in their original position, we retired under a tree for a sup of grog; and having soon taken up our former station, had not been there five minutes before our friends on the right waved their cloths. On coming up to them, we found that two hogs were coming out, but stopped short on the edge of the jungle they soon started, but turned back into the thicket. We were send ing the beaters back to beat it again, and had retired to our post, when we perceived a large hog, who, having crossed the river, was now cantering along the banks. We had heard that there was a large boar there, and now made sure that we had got him. dashed across the river after him, and perceived him making straight for a small patch of bajjeree. This he reached without being speared; but remained in it only long enough to allow the huntsmen to surround it, when he again took away over a fine plain, and was almost immediately killed; but to our disappointment, instead of being a boar, as we had expected, it was a sow. [Our gallant friend, we can hardly doubt, has spent the greater part of his youth within a few miles of the hill of Howth.]

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"We again returned to the jungle, and had not even commenced beating when we saw another single hog taking away in front, at a rapid pace: we were all after her in a twinkling, and after a run of about a mile she was NO. CCXCIII. VOL. XLVII.

killed. We had now had no less than five runs, in which all hands were engaged, the day, as I have before mentioned, being extremely hot; and having only two horses each, completely out of training, and not at all in condition for such violent exercise, we began to find that both men and horses had had nearly enough for one day. However, we knew that there were more hog in the jungle; and as long as our nags could go, (though they had been already twice changed,) we had no idea of giving in. Accordingly, each mounting our freshest horse, we again took post in our old place, and on beating the jungle were again successful; a sounder of twelve now broke out, of which three were killed, and three more lost in the jungle and sugar-cane field after having been speared. With the death of one other ended the sport of the day, and we wound up with eight killed and four more lost after being speared. Our horses were ridden to a stand-still, and besides, two of us were obliged to be at Mohol, halfway back to camp, by sunset, and it was now three o'clock, so we mounted our tits and cantered to the tents. On arriving there we found the dinner ready, and after a hasty meal got into the nibbs at four o'clock, and reached Mohol exactly at half-past six-in the palankeens by seven reached camp at halfpast two on the following morning, and were on parade at gunfire.”

This is what we call a very praiseworthy specimen of pluck and bottom; for nibbses are not made by London coachmakers, nor are the roads macadamized. The thermometer was probably at 95°, and galloping after a sounder of twelve hog is not quite an occupation adapted for the dog-days. But glory is a wonderful support in the hottest weather: we doubt not that it is nearly as inspiring as the sup of grog we find so modestly alluded to; and greater glory or more rapturous excitement is nowhere to be met with than in standing the rush of a huge brown boar, and planting your spear right in his bristly neck when his tusk is within a foot of your horse's breast-cutting down a cuirassier is perhaps more exhilarating still, or splitting the turban of a Thug; but, in a quiet way, we are not sure that we should not prefer transfixing the iracundus aper. And, while we are about it, we

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