CHAPTER XI 



HUNTING THE CAVE-DWELLING TIGER OF CHINA 



LONG the coast of China, midway be- 

 tween Hongkong and Shanghai, there 

 lies a tract of country quite devoid of 

 any growth, where the barren hills 

 which roll back from the sea to the rice-cultivated 

 country inland are strewn with the gigantic boulders 

 of some prehistoric glacial moraine ; and it is in the 

 numberless caves and subterranean passages formed 

 by these great confused masses of rock that the sole 

 wild occupant of the country, the Chinese tiger, 

 finds his lair. Accordingly the sport of tiger-shooting 

 is here quite a different proposition from that in In- 

 dia and other tropical countries, where the methods 

 of shooting are adapted to the jungle, that is, from 

 the backs of elephants, on foot on a jungle-path, 

 by driving, beating, or sitting up over a kill. Here 

 in China the animal must be tracked to his cave ; 

 and if found in such a position that he cannot be 

 driven out to the gun, he must be blocked in so that 

 the sportsman can enter with comparative safety. 

 Thus, whereas in India the excitement is generally 



