Chapter L, 



TIGERS.— (Continuccf.) 



I have already said that our knowledge of the Chinese, 

 Korean, Manchurian, and Siberian tigers is but scanty, and 

 I repeat that it is a pity some influential native has not 

 arranged for more or less scientific hunting parties in dis- 

 tricts worth the trouble. It is not now as once it was. Scores 

 of rich natives speak English well, and it should not be 

 difficult to get up parties of men from the two nationalities 

 to undertake the interesting task of studying "Stripes"' in 

 his Chinese haunts. As it is, we have to go to India for 

 exact knowledge. There British officers on leave, and 

 Maharajahs fond of field sports are our main authorities. 

 Their experience is widespread and extends over a long 

 series of years. It does not, of course, bear out all the ex- 

 aggerated dimensions of heated imaginations. The tiger 

 which is "as big as an elephant — almost" — does not exist. 

 At least, if he does, he has never been brought to bag. The 

 tape measure applied from nose to tip of tail within a few 

 minutes of the fatal shot is no respecter of fancies. Inch 

 by inch it reads off the feet, and soon the tale is told. What 

 looked so immense to the tyro fails very frequently to reach 

 even 9 ft, and he is an immense tiger-in India — which gets 

 into double figures and totals ten. One shot by the 

 Maharajah of Cooch Behar measured 10 ft. Ih in. Another, 

 of 10 ft, 5 in., was the largest which the same sportsman had 

 met within 37 years' shooting. On the Assam frontier one 

 of 10 ft. 6 in. was bagged on one occasion, but the record 

 Indian size, measured before skinning, reached a length of 

 10 ft. 7 in. The measurement of 12 ft. 2 in. mentioned in 

 Rowland Ward's book refers probably to the skin, which 

 stretches considerably under manipulation. When one 

 turns from these figures to those of the record 13 ft. 3 in. 

 skin mentioned in the last chapter, there is a good deal of 

 room for question. Although this was a skin which 1 saw 

 with my own eyes, I am not by any means suggesting that 

 when alive its original owner stood anything like that size. 

 There are tricks of the trade which go beyond stretching, 

 and these may have been applied in that particular instance. 

 But when all necessary allowance has been made for this, the 



