THE MANCHURIAN TIGER 
assured me he was a very ordinary specimen. One indeed averred that ten 
years before he had been in at the death of one between Mokpo and Fusan 
that would have measured at least 3 ft more than mine. 
South of Korea I seldom heard of tiger being trapped, though outside 
most villages in the vicinity of wooded hills there will be seen the ruins 
— I have never seen one set — of what was once a box-trap built of stone, and 
when in use baited with a live pig or dog. The tiger, on getting far enough 
into the trap, releases a falling door by stepping on a board connected with 
the cord holding the door in suspense. Once caught, the poor brute is 
starved to death, as a hole in its skin might depreciate its value by a yen or 
two. One trapped near a monastery by some young priests a year or two 
before my visit had — so the abbot told me — taken more than three weeks 
dying! 
In the happy days before the Japanese occupation and the consequent 
confiscation of fire-arms, when the depredations of a tiger became too pro- 
nounced, the active male inhabitants of the villages in the neighbourhood, 
perhaps half a dozen, armed with matchlocks, and as many more with 
heavy spears, would arrange for a day or two’s driving in the adjacent hills. 
Occasionally these hunts were successful, but at any rate they relieved 
monotony and invariably, whether successful or not, formed an excuse 
for a glorious drunk on the conclusion of their labours. Sometimes one of 
the hunters would be mauled or even killed, and more than one of my 
beaters could show honourable scars gained in this way. 
Local hunters, I often found, could give a fairly accurate guess as to 
where the tiger would make for when moved ; but as these stands were 
usually where the undergrowth was particularly dense the chance of a 
shot was very much diminished. Twice in one day, as I found by the tracks 
afterwards, a big tiger passed within a few yards of me and I neither saw 
nor heard him, though there was little if any snow and the ground was 
covered with dead leaves. 
There seemed at one time to be a general idea among big game hunters 
— especially those who had done much shooting in India — that the long- 
haired tiger was a much less dangerous animal to tackle than his southern 
cousin. It is difficult to understand how such a belief originated, as anyone 
who has travelled at all in the countries frequented by these animals cannot 
fail to be impressed with the wholesome dread of the beast evinced by the 
inhabitants, whether Chinese, Koreans, or Manchurian. One and all testify 
to the ferocity and cunning of this tiger, and, if one will only listen, many 
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