vi THE TIGER 143 



projectile ; keep the latter within the auirnal to ensure the effect 

 of the blow ; this will be effected by a bullet made of pure lead 

 without admixture with other metal, to flatten upon impact, and 

 by the expansion of surface it will create a terrific wound ; at the 

 same time it will have sufficient momentum from its great weight 

 to push forward, and to overcome the resistance of opposing bones 

 and muscles. A very large tiger may weigh 450 Ibs. ; a '577 

 bullet of 650 grains, propelled by G drams of powder, has a strik- 

 ing energy of 3520 foot-pounds. This may be only theoretical 

 measurement, but the approximate superiority of 3500 Ibs. against 

 the tiger's weight, 450 Ibs., would be sufficient to ensure the 

 stoppage of a charge, or the collapse of the animal in any position, 

 provided that the bullet should be retained within the body, and 

 thus bestow the whole force of the striking energy. 



We did all that could be done for our wounded men. The 

 strength of caste prejudices was so potent that, although in pangs 

 of thirst from pain and general shock to the system, they would 

 accept nothing from our hands. I made a mixture of milk with 

 soda-water, brandy, and laudanum, but they refused to swallow it, 

 and the only course, after washing their wounds and bandaging, 

 was to leave them to the treatment of their own people. 



One man was severely bitten through the chest and back, the 

 fangs of the tiger having penetrated the lungs ; he was also clawed 

 in a terrible manner about the head and face, where the paws of 

 the animal had first made fast their hold. This man died in a few 

 hours. The others were bitten through the shoulder and upper 

 portion of the arm, both in the same manner, and the sharp claws 

 had cut through the scalp from the forehead across the head to 

 the back of the neck, inflicting clean wounds to the bone, as though 

 produced by a pruning-knife. They were conveyed in litters to 

 the hospital in Moorwarra, where they remained for nearly a 

 month, at the expiration of which they recovered. The seizure 

 by the claws was effected without the shock of a blow. 



This serious accident was entirely due to a hollow bullet : if a 

 solid bullet had struck a tiger in the same place it would have 

 carried away a portion of the spine, and the animal would have 

 been paralysed upon the spot. 



In the absence of a dependable elephant we should have been 

 helpless, and the tiger might have wounded or killed many others. 



