TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. 473 



Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 



Let it pry through the portage of the head, 



Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it 



As fearfully as doth a galled rock 



O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 



Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean. 



Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide ; 



Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 



To his full height." 



The average size of the tiger is from about three to four feet 

 in height, and in length it varies from six to nine feet. It 

 generally lies in wait for its victim, and springs upon it with a 

 fearful leap ; if this should be unsuccessful it sometimes slinks 

 off, but more generally pursues the affrighted prey with a speed 

 that is almost in incredible. The Indian buffalo is not only 

 borne down, but also carried off by this tremendous beast. 

 Various devices are resorted to, to destroy this formidable foe. 

 One or two that we did not previously mention may be just 

 named. A spring-bow, which discharges a poisonous arrow, 

 is sometimes laid in its way, the tiger letting fly the arrow by 

 touching a cord which is stretched across its path. Though 

 the wound received is sometimes but slight, yet the deadly poi- 

 son in which the arrow is dipped almost always insures its prov- 

 ing fatal. A similar plan is to suspend a heavy beam over 

 the way it traverses, connected with a cord which lies directly 

 in its path. Upon touching the cord down comes the beam, 

 and the animal is crushed beneath its ponderous weight. Some- 

 times single individuals have gone out to seek the tiger in his 

 lair ; and, aided by the deadly rifle-gun, have come off victors. 

 Some time ago, an officer of one of the company's regiments, 

 who had become famous for his encounters with this royal 

 beast, was applied to by the natives of a village in Upper India, 

 to rid them of a large tiger that had for a long time infested 

 the neighborhood. To this he consented, and, attended by a 

 single Hindoo servant, watched for several nights on the banks 

 of a small stream where the tiger was said to prowl. But it 



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