On the way home we bagged a florican and a very fine mallard, and
reached the camp utterly fagged, to find our worthy magistrate very
much recovered, and glad to congratulate us on our having bagged the
tigress. After a plunge in the river, and a rare camp dinner--such a
meal as only an Indian sportsman can procure--we lay back in our cane
chairs, and while the fragrant smoke from the mild Manilla curled
lovingly about the roof of the tent, we discussed the day's
proceedings, and fought our battles over again.
A rather animated discussion arose about the length of the tiger--as
to its frame merely, and we wondered what difference the skin would
make in the length of the animal. As it was a point we had never heard
mooted before, we determined to see for ourselves. We accordingly went
out into the beautiful moonlight, and superintended the skinning of
the tigress. The skin was taken off most artistically. We had
carefully measured the animal before skinning. She was exactly nine
feet long. We found the skin made a difference of only four inches,
the bare skeleton from tip of nose to extreme point of tail measuring
eight feet eight inches.
As an instance of tigers taking to trees, our worthy magistrate
related that in Rajmehal he and a friend had wounded a tiger, and
subsequently lost him in the jungle. In vain they searched in every
conceivable direction, but could find no trace of him. They were about
giving up in despair, when S., raising his hat, happened to look up,
and there, on a large bough directly overhead, he saw the wounded
tiger lying extended at full length, some eighteen feet from the
ground. They were not long in leaving the dangerous vicinity, and it
was not long either ere a well-directed shot brought the tiger down
from his elevated perch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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