THE MANCHURIAN TIGER 
skin was removed a tape run along the back, from the tip of the nose to the 
root of the tail, showed a length of 10 ft. 5 in. 
Now a tiger of this size could hardly have been the owner of a tail of less 
than 3 ft. in length, so we thus get a total measurement of 13 ft. 5 in., 
as against the record in ** Records of Big Game” for the Indian variety 
of 11 ft. The member of the firm who took the measurements, though 
a keen sportsman, had had most of his big game experience among 
bear, and had therefore attached no importance to the tail, which he 
told me “was tucked away between the legs and therefore difficult to 
get at.” 
The late Mr Rowland Ward, to whom I subsequently quoted these figures, 
assured me he had no difficulty in crediting them, as he believed the skin 
was identical with one bought in the London market in 1899 by a well- 
known Englishman, and he had no doubt that this skin must have belonged 
to an animal measuring very little short of 14 ft. 
From inquiries made among fur dealers in Harbin, Vladivostok and 
Pekin I am inclined to think that the tigers found in the country between 
Vladivostok and Khabarovsk run bigger and are more numerous than 
anywhere else, and I feel sure that were anyone, prepared, of course, for a 
good deal of hardship and hard work, to make an expedition in from Irma 
at the time of the first snow, while the temperature is still comparatively 
moderate, he would be well rewarded for his trouble. 
It would be advisable to proceed first to Vladivostok, where an inter- 
preter, servants and camp equipment, as well as the latest information, 
would be procurable. 
In October-November, 1911, a German sportsman was lucky enough to 
kill three tigers in the neighbourhood of Irma in three weeks, and his 
interpreter, whom I afterwards met in Kamchatka, informed me that 
had he worked harder, he ought to have shot two, if not three, more. It 
should be remembered, however, that 1911 was a good “raisin ” year and 
pig were positively swarming. 
In 1899 it was still not uncommon to find fresh footprints of tiger on a 
winter’s morning in any of the outlying streets of Vladivostok, and that 
spring a sportsman, looking for nothing more dangerous than pheasants 
and woodcock, was suddenly confronted by one of these animals, of the 
gigantic proportions usually described on such occasions, within five miles 
of the city. 
In the mountainous district between Harbin and Vladivostok a certain 
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