"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.