■MISCELLANEOUS. 149 



prizes you will, it is all money thrown away. Mr. Dane, Deputy Commissioner 

 Gurdaspur, says— "The first prize for foreign seed cocoons fell to Lister & Co.," 

 and further on he says — " it seems somewhat absurd" (I should think it does) 

 " to award over 1,000 rupees' worth of prizes for a total out-turn of silk of such 

 trifling value, viz, Rs. 6,415." And what is more if they gave every shilling 

 in the Indian Treasury they would not be one bit nearer. All the wealth of 

 India can never make silk-worms thrive in the hands of dirty, careless, ignorant 

 native reavers. I have paid for my learning, as for several years I joined the 

 Government in giving prizes; but I soon saw that it was a perfect waste of time 

 and money. Then it was that I determined to try what could be done by having 

 everything carried out in a proper, business-like manner ; and I am now, as I 

 think, on the point of having a great success, after years of trouble and expense. 

 Just a word with regard to cottage cultivation, and then I have done. Where 

 mulberry trees abound and the climate is suitables, cottage cultivation should be 

 possible, provided the native rearers are supplied with sound seed, and, above all, 

 are taught how to use it. A certain number of intelligent, trained rearers, 

 going from house to bouse, might soon bring about abundant success; but it is 

 quite useless to offer prizes to men who know nothing of sericulture, and who 

 are totally ignorant of the fundamental fact that silk-worms cannot be reared 

 excepting with sufficient air, space, cleanliness and regular feeding. 



A BLACK TIGER. 

 No authentic record exists of a black tiger having been seen or killed in Bengal 

 so I am informed. Black leopards are well known, especially in the Madras 

 Presidency and in the Straits Settlements, and I have heard of them in Bengal, 

 though I never saw them alive there (except in the Calcutta Zoological Gardens). 

 But before I go hence and am no more seen, I wish to state that I and several 

 others saw a dead black tiger at Chittagong, and from the entries in my diary, 

 which was pretty regularly kept, I know that it was in March 1846. The news 

 was brought into the station that a dead black ti^er was Lying near the road 

 that leads to Tipperah, distant about two miles from Chittagong. In the early 

 morning we rode out to see it, but several of the party — Sir H. Ricketts, Mr. 

 Fulwar Skipwith, Captain Swatman and Captain Hore — are no longer alive, and 

 I cannot produce any eye-witness to attest my statement, although several 

 friends to whom I have written recollect that they heard something about it at 

 the time. 



I remember perfectly well that the body of the animal was lying in the low 

 bush jungle about twenty yards south of the road, and we dismounted to go 

 and look at it. It was a full-sized tiger, and the skin was black or vei'y dai'k 

 brown, so that the stripes showed rather a darker black in the sunlight, just as 

 the spots are visible on the skin of a black leopard. The tiger had been killed 

 bv a poisoned arrow, and had wandered away more than a mile from the place 

 where it was wounded before it lay down to die. By the time that we arrived 

 the carcase was swollen, the flies were buzzing about it, and decomposition had 

 set in, so that those of our party who knew best decided that the skin could not 

 be saved. I was young and inexperienced, but Captain Swatman, who was in 

 charge of the Government elephant kheddas, and Captain Hore (afterwards Lord 

 Ruthven), of the 25th N. I., were well-known sportsmen and had each of them 

 killed many tigers. No doubt was expressed about the animal being a black 



