304 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



victim to a state of non-resistance, the great beast seizes the 

 man by a bite embracing the chest, and with the feet dragging 

 upon the ground rushes ofi to a place of safety to devour him at 

 leisure. Dr. David Livingston was seized alive by a lion, and 

 carried I forget how many yards without a stop. His left 

 humerus was broken in the onset, but the lion abandoned him 

 without doing him any further serious harm. 



Once I could not believe that a lion or a tiger could pick up a 

 man in his mouth and rapidly carry him off, as a fox gets away 

 with a chicken; but when I shot a male tiger weighing 495 

 pounds, standing 37 inches high and measuring 35 inches around 

 his jaws, I was forever convinced. In the Malay Peninsula 

 Captain Syers told me that a tiger leaped a stockade seven 

 feet high, seized a Chinese woodcutter, leaped out with him, and 

 carried him away. 



In a scrimmage with a lion or tiger in the open, the fight is 

 not prolonged. It is a case of kill or be killed quickly. The 

 time of times for steady nerves and perfectly accurate shooting 

 is when a lion, tiger or bear charges the hunter at full speed, 

 beginning sufficiently far away to give the hunter a sporting 

 chance. The hunter can not afford to he "scared!" It is liable 

 to cost too much! 



The Alaskan brown bear has a peculiar habit. Occasionally 

 he kills the hunter he has struck down, but very often he con- 

 tents himself with biting his victim on his fleshy parts, literally 

 from head to foot. More than one unfortunate amateur hunter 

 has been fearfully bitten without having a bone broken, and 

 without having an important artery or vein severed. Such 

 unfortunates lie upon their faces, with their arms protecting 

 their heads as best they can, and take the awful punishment 

 until the bear tires of it and goes away. Then they crawl, on 

 hands and knees, to come within reach of discovery and help. 

 In the annals of Alaska's frontier life there are some heart- 

 rending records of cases such as I have described, coupled with 

 some marvellous recoveries. 



