Nov. 4 1905.] 
Shooting Tigers in Java. 
In the early ’40s I was a foremast hand on a whaler 
which had been several months out from home, and 
we were sadly in need of fresh provisions and water, and 
I it was time that the crew had a run on shore, for we had 
not set our feet on land since leaving New Bedford, 
' five months before. Our quest for whales had been 
[without anticipated success; we only had taken a hun- 
dred-barrel sperm whale during that time, and that off 
I the Cape of Good Hope. We had thoroughly scoured 
I the Indian Ocean, and leisurely cruised along the coast 
of the Island of Sumatra without success, and at last 
; we pointed our prow for the Straits of Sunda, bound 
to Anjer Point in the Island of Java, a snug little road- 
' stead much visited in those days by whalemen and 
merchant ve3s.cls bound from the East Indies to the 
United'States and Europe. It was a quaint old place, 
populated for the most part by Malays, some of them 
peaceful enough when on shore, but when cruising in 
the Straits in their swift-sailing prgas, pirates of the 
most pronounced and desperate type. Then there were 
a fair representation of the native Javanese, a few 
Europeans, and a garrison of Afro-D.utch soldiers who 
garrisoned the settlement, and were quartered in a small 
fort, whose guns commanded principal!}^ the settlement 
and its land approaches; but as a defense from the sea 
it counted for nil, for a little sloop-of-war of twenty 
guns could have taken it in ten minutes. 
Anjer was celebrated in those days, and especially 
among seafarers as having within its precincts the 
largest banyan tree in the world, its diameter, counting 
'its root branches, being between three and four hun- 
dred feet. In its branches was the lookout station of 
the port, and beneath its foliage and amid its countless 
root branches the people gathered for shade from the 
intense rays of the tropic sun, and to gossip. It was 
beneath this grand old banyan tree that I_ saw my first 
real live tiger, and here I shot my first wild animal. I 
had come on shore with the starboard watch that 
morning for a gunning expedition, every man being 
provided with an old-fashioned musket carrying an 
ounce ball, a powder flask, a bunch of oakum for wad- 
ding and a tin box of percussion caps. But a bevy of 
pretty native girls, coupled with a plentitude of alluring 
beverages and lots of luscious fruits, broke up that 
hunting party as planned. Bob, a shipmate of mine, and 
I were disgusted with the rest of the “liberty men,” 
and resolved we would explore the town and see the 
sights. After a long stroll we brought up at the banyan 
tree for a rest. 
At the time of our visit to Anjer a severe drought 
was prevailing in that part of the island, and water was 
very scarce in town. The water supply came from some 
distance back in the country and was brought into town 
by means of an open conduit or “aqueduct,” which led 
the water into a small circular reservoir near the big 
tree. Bob and I were tired out with our long tramp in 
the hot sun, and lay down for a nap. I was in a sound 
sleep, when I was aroused by my companion, who was 
shaking me roughly, sung out, “Get up. Jack; here’s a 
big tiger!” And sure enough, with her forepaws rest- 
ing on the side of the conduit facing us was a good- 
sized animal quietly lapping up her fill of water, evi- 
fdently regardless of our close proximity to her. Bob 
• Wt.s for running away, but I persuaded him to stand by 
-me while I tried a shot. I felt pretty certain of doing 
:the tb.wsiness, for I was counted the crack shot of the 
Jship, racid if the old gun did its duty, I was sure of the 
:game. J put on a fresh cap, and with Bob ready to give 
me his gu-n in case I missed, we walked up slowly to the 
.tiger, which did not seem to mind it a bit. When 
within about twenty feet of the fellow I stopped, and 
^taking deliberate aim, fired. How that old gun did 
jkick! But the tiger kicked worse and longer. The re- 
;port of my gun startled the garrison, and some twenty 
Tlack soldiers came running on the double quick to 
where Bob and I stood. By this time we were close 
lip to the conduit, and peering over we saw that I had 
not lost my good name as a dead shot. The long 
and short of this story is that the Governor claimed the 
skin of the tigress, for it was a mother that I had killed, 
and her little cub fell to me as a trophy of my first game 
in the Island of Java. I received a few dollars bounty, 
and numberless congratulations upon my good marks- 
manship and pluck. I took the little cub on board the 
ship, determined to be its foster father to the best of 
my ability, but it became too vicious as it grew up, and 
was shot lest it do some mischief. 
This incident was destined not to be my last tiger 
hunt in Java. After fillin.g up our lockers with pota- 
toes, yams, cocoanuts. fruits of all kinds and the pens 
and coops with pigs and chickens, and not being able 
to fill up our casks with fresh water, we sailed for 
New. River, a day’s sail from Anjer, which we had been 
informed, abounded in limpid streams emptying into 
the river. On the trip we experienced one of the most 
■terrific electrical storms any of us had ever encountered. 
Jt was beyond the power of description. However, we 
came out of it unscathed, and arrived at our destina- 
tion. It was the most weird, uncanny place we ever 
saw. A narrow, slug.gish stream, with banks bordered 
with virgin forests, and no sign of human habitation; 
the trees were full of birds and monkeys, and they 
kept up an incessant racket that was new and novel to 
us, and when night came, howls, snarls, growls, and 
.screeches abounded till the very air was aquiver with 
the animal din. A nice place to get water, thought we. 
But the morning brought relief to our ears, and in its 
turn the silence was painful, it was so deathly. When 
daylight came — and it comes all at once in the tropics — 
a boat was sent on shore to see how the land lay. My 
record as a good shot caused me to be ordered into the 
bo^t as the lookout man and sharpshooter. A short 
pul! brought us to a fine pebbly beach, fringed by soil 
that showed the slightest footprints. Within a few 
yards of where our boat landed we found a beautiful 
rivulet, running crystal waters in abundance, and by its 
side we saw the footprints of aninr^ls of all sizes, but 
what they were we could only conjecture, though we 
could well understand that the din of the previous night 
had proceeded from this “watering place.” Not long 
after our return to the shio. the water casks “becketed 
and rafted,” were being towed to the ■ springside, and 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
we worked well and quickly in filling the casks, keeping 
the meanwhile a good lookout for a visit from animals. 
Two days were spent in watering ship, and on the 
morning of the third day the captain concluded he 
would make an excursion a few miles up the river. 
Accordingly his boat was fitted out with some pro- 
visions, a gun for each man was put in the boat, with 
plenty of ammunition, and he taking his rifle, which 
by the way was the only weapon of its kind on board. 
The wind was fair, and we set sail and proceeded up the 
river at a good pace, enjoying the new and .novel 
scener3c The captain was in excellent humor and in- 
terested us very much with yarns of his voyages and 
adventures, and the time passed rapidly and very pleas- 
antly all the forenoon. We ate our lunch, and took in ^ 
sail and began our return journey, estimating that we 
had gone up the river about fifteen miles. The wind 
was now dead ahead, and we out oars for a fifteen-mile 
pull, a mere trifle for well-seasoned whalemen. Bend- 
ing to the ash, we made the boat spin along at a lively 
gait, and were some five miles away from the turning 
point, when sudden^ the captain exclaimed, “Great 
heavens! look at that tiger!” And sure enough, lying 
well out on an overhanging branch of a tree, under 
which we must pass, lay a magnificent tiger, evidently 
watching its chance to spring into our boat. To' say 
that the captain was “gallied,” conveys but a faint idea 
of his mental condition, and as for my shipmates, the>' 
were a sight to beheld. Perhaps my experience at 
Anjer a few days previous had fitted me to be self- 
possessed, and perhaps confident of my skill with a gun, 
and while the captain was in such a funk, I said, “Cap- 
tain, let me have your rifle and I feel sure that I can 
knock that fellow off his perch.” 
I will confess that the situation was an embarrassing- 
one to those that for the first time were placed in such 
an awkward position. 
The captain handed me the rifle, and in an instant I 
drew a bead and fired, just as the captain was saying, 
“Now, Jack, don’t miss him.” I will confess I felt a 
bit shaky myself, for I knew that if I missed him the 
chances were that when he made his spring, it meant 
that he would land in our little frail boat, and that 
would be the end of the boat, the captain and the boat’s 
crew. But the bullet went to the mark. Like an arrow 
from a bow the beautiful creature shot through the air, 
and we felt the wind of his form as he passed only a 
few inches over our heads, and with a fearful splash 
went belo-vv the surface of the waters. It was a terrible 
moment of suspense to all of us, but the instant he 
struck the water, the captain regained his power of 
speech and roared like a lion: “Now, pull, boys; pull 
for God’s sake, boj^s; pull, let’s get out of this infernal 
hole.” 
We did pull, better perhaps than we ever did on going 
on to a whale, and the gait we made in going, back to 
the ship held the record for the rest of the voyage.- In 
due course we reached the ship, our boat wae hoisted up 
and the boat’s crew told their shipmates how Jack had 
shot the tiger which but for him would have torn them 
to bits. The foIlo-v\ing day the captain gave me two new 
flannel overshirts and ten pounds of tobacco, and so 
long as I remained in the good old ship, I remained the 
champion shot, either with musket or the captain’s rifle. 
Sometimes when the captain would get excited in pull- 
ing for a fleeing whale, he exclaimed, “Pull, there’s a, 
tiger up that tree!” B. S. Osbon. 
In Self-Defense. 
The start was made on Sept. 13 last in a driving rain 
storm, our party consisting of the guide, Norris Man- 
derville, of North Renous, Park Holts, the cook, and the 
writer. At Colpaugh, the last house of the settlement, 
tw’o physicians from Philadelphia, Messrs. H. and 
D., joined us wdih their outfit. The first night was 
passed in an old abandoned lumber camp, not too com- 
fortable bu4 dry. The next day brought us to Long Lake 
Brook, w'here our Philadelphia friends remained. The 
third day we finally handed at our destination, the lake of 
the north branch of the Renous. Some moose tracks had 
been seen on our trip, but no game excepting one deer, 
which quickly sought safety in the thick brush. 
The first morning in camp, after fixing up things and 
making everything clean and tidy, I was fortunate in 
meeting a small deer, which added at once fresh meat 
to our larder. This, with an abundance of trout, which 
could be taken at any time with the fly from the nearby 
Renous River, and occasionally a partridge made our fare 
really sumptuous. A plentiful supply of provisions, gro- 
ceries, etc., had been taken from Fredericton. A most 
agreeable addition proved to be the high-bush cranberries, 
which were plentiful. 
When leaving for the trip Mrs. P. had charged me not 
to bring home any more b,g moose heads ; she wanted no 
more. I assented, how^ever, wdth the proviso that I would 
kill a moose only in self-defense. I had in mind an oc- 
currence which happened a j’ear before when a large 
moose rather boldly challenged me at a time when I had 
no rifle, and. although I had already killed my moose, 
the animal did provoke me sufficiently to shoot him had I 
been armed. Moose being the principal game of that part 
of New Brunswick in which I was, my aim was to have 
them be the aggressor. 
The calling of my guide did not prove successful, no 
doubt owing to the warm w^eather; we hardly got any 
answer. Norris therefore concluded he would cruise 
about to find where the large moose were ; he knew they 
were there, as he had seen a number last fall. He prcK 
posed, therefore, to cruise in different directions and try 
to locate them, after which I was to join him. 
In the meantime I decided to do some moose calling 
on my own hook, trying the lake in the morning (this 
being the most convenient to our camp) and a little bar- 
ren about a mile and a half from the camp in the after- 
noon. I heard several indifferent answers at both places, 
but w’as more successful in calling cows, which occasion- 
ally came so near that we had to frighten them away; 
one cow in particular at the head of the lake proved 
rather annoying. My call had a vigorous answer and a 
bull was making straight for us when a cow in a nearby 
cove, which I had seen before locating for my call, went 
to meet the swain and made off with him to our utter 
disgust. 
867 
On Friday morning Norris returned, disappointed, as 
he had praciically no answers from large moose. He 
would try that evening another lake about two and oiie- 
half miles to the northwest of u.s, and if not successful 
proposed that we should take our back tracks about eight 
miles to a lake on the ridge. At 4 o'clock that afternoon 
the cook and myself started out to our little barren, 
where I had called previously, and had the good luck to 
shoot a caribou, which, although a large animal, did not 
have a specially large set of horns; but the guide wanted 
it, he told me to shoot a caribou for him, as he wanted 
the hide for snow shoes. The meat from this animal 
which we did not use fresh was smoked, air dried and 
taken to the settlement. At about 6 o’clock tw'o answers 
came, one to the northwest appeared to be a large bull. 
Very soon after the answer we heard quite an argument, 
evidently with the old lady, who would not let him go. 
Doubtless she finally prevailed and we heard no more 
of him. Another answ'er from the east from a high 
ridge in back of our camp was rather slow in coming. 
AVhen darkness came on, so that 1 could no longer see 
the sight of my rifle, I decided to return to camp, lioping 
to meet the moose on the way back. After cro.ssing, the 
Renous River, which was very noisy, jumping from rock 
to rock, we found that the moose was much nearer than 
anticipated. It being quite dark in the river bottom I 
tried to get as near to the place where he was likely to 
cross as possible. In five minutes the game showed at 
the edge of the river bank. As he descended, while con- 
tinually grunting, I could only see his light-colored antlers, 
which appeared to be of quite a respectable size, the dark- 
ness prevented seeing his black colored body. Just as 
he was crossing the trail which I was following close 
on the river bank, I fired at where I supposed his body 
to be. Instantly the moose made a half turn and a great 
jump toward me. He landed wiihin three feet of me. 
While he was jumping I had fired again. The enormous 
animal landed so close to me that his great light-colored 
legs and horns appeared to be at least ten feet above me. 
The next instant as he moved forward I leaned up against 
his side with my left hand to ward him off. The moment 
he had passed I fired again, although evidently he was 
more staggering than~rimrring. This last shot caused him. 
to fall instantly against a small pine tree which the cook- 
had used as a shelter when he saw the close approach 
of the animal. The whole affair had taken less time than 
it takes to read it. After seeing that our game w'as dead 
the cook and I returned; to camp. I do not believe the 
bull wanted to attack ine, the fearful shock of the .35 
Winchester turned liim around. he_ struggled forward to 
get away and happened to come my. way. Arrived in camp, 
I needed something to quiet my nerves, the prescription 
read something like “Canadian Club.” A good supper and 
a pipe made us content with the world. 
The next morning at 6:30 our guide appeared at the 
camp. He had heard the shooting and inquired the re- 
sult. After telling him the story he seemed to doubt that 
the moose had really been as near as I de.scribed it to 
him. I proposed to go down and u.'^e the tape line which 
Norris had brought with him to satisfy him on this point. 
The result was that we found that the moose was seven- 
teen feet away when I first shot. His first jump was 
fourteen feet. He had a fearful wound in his side. The 
second bullet had penetrated his breast and cut the jugiflar 
vein, while the third had struck and broken- his spine. 
The total distance from the first shot to where he lay was 
thirty feet. A slight curve in the trail where I stood prob- 
ably saved me from being run over, as the moo.se had taken 
a straight line, grazing me while passing within two feet,, 
at the place where 1 pressed against his side with my left 
hand trjdng to ward him off. The antlers, although not 
very large, were quite sjmimetrical and had a spread of 
about fifty inches, with twenty points. This was as near 
to shooting a moose in self-defense as I ever came. I had 
a good excuse to bring home another head. 
Saturday was spent in skinning and cleaning the head 
and scalp. . ‘ 
On Sunday I proposed to visit my friend, Mr. Carl 
Rungius, the artist, -who was spending some time in a 
camp, at which I had hunted the previous fall and which 
was situated nine miles to the southeast of us. The start 
was made at 9 o’clock in the morning. At about 1 1, we 
reached a bear house and, strange as it may appear, as we 
reached one end at the same instant at the opposite side, 
a bear showed his head out of the brush, not over thirty 
yards awaj'. Taking qi'ickly two steps aside gave me a 
good view of his forequarters. A ball in his right shoul- 
oer knocKid him clean over. When we reached him he 
had in his fangs a small pine tree, but was stone dead. 
Such a meeting at thi,s time of the year was great luck. 
There were many signs of bear, but as they are very shy 
they are hardly ever seen; in fact, my guide said that he 
had never met one before. We dragged the bear into the 
bear house and proceeded on our way. We found Mr. 
Rungius at home; a quick lunch was cooked, the usual 
refreshments served, experiences and stories were ex- 
changed. Mr. Rungius had shot, so far, only a caribou; 
he was now trying for a moose. He had had several 
answers but had not yet seen a sufficiently large spread 
of horns to tempt him to shoot. 1 examined the fine col- 
lection of sketches which the artist had made of this most 
romantic and charming corner of Canada’s wilderness, 
after which we turned our way home. We met two moose 
shortly after, a cow and a calf. A few partridges were 
shot for supper and I reached camp about 5 o’clock, after 
a little saunter of altogether eighteen miles. The guide 
arrived about half an hour later, bringing with him the- 
skin of the bear. 
On Monday we visited a lumber camp which had been 
started that morning some distance above the lakes. It 
was quite interesting to see the young fellows cutting 
wood and preparing it for the camp in a business-like 
way, and the progress which they made with their axes 
alone in a few hours was really remarkable. 
The time had now come for my returning. Thinking 
that the team might come sooner than expected I took an 
early stroll to meet them. After leaving camp I , soon 
heard some moose and on stealing near I saw a calf, a' 
COW' and a fair-sized bull playing around. I had an oppor- 
tunity to watch them, sitting still on a log for about fen 
to fifteen minutes. As the team did not show up I re- 
turned again to camp for dinner. In the afternoon I went 
over the same ground and was about in the same locality 
as where I had seen the moose in the morning, when a 
