CHAPTER XVI 



READING over the story of the adventure I have just 

 recorded reminds me of a subject I have not as yet touched 

 on, although it is one which has probably given rise to 

 greater controversy both epistolary and verbal than 

 any other in connection with big game shooting in India, 

 viz. the size of Indian tigers. 



But in spite of the many opinions expressed, and of all 

 statements to the contrary, it is now practically an admitted 

 fact based on the long experience of trustworthy Anglo- 

 Indian sportsmen that Indian tigers, whether shot in 

 Bengal, Madras, or Bombay, have seldom exceeded ten 

 feet in length, when stretched to their fullest extent, 

 immediately after death, and measured carefully from tip 

 of nose to tail, all curves included. 



However, every rule has its exceptions, and the tiger 

 whose story I am now about to relate was certainly one 



of them. It was shot in the district of J , a few 



months after I had left, and the circumstances attending 

 its destruction are taken from a description given me by 

 the District Officer referred to, who took a prominent 

 part in the proceedings and wrote to me a day or two 

 after while the facts were still fresh in his mind. 



For some weeks previous to the expedition which 

 ended in the death of this monster, rumours had reached 

 the district authorities of the existence of an enormous 

 tiger which was said to have taken up his abode in the 

 large Government reserve forest, some twenty miles 

 from the civil station, and to prey on the cattle of the 

 villages living in the immediate vicinity of the forest. 



Various attempts had been made to locate and despatch 

 this reputed giant, but hitherto without success, for he 

 either killed and finished his meal at once, without returning 



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