114 
THE TIGER. 
forests for the public roads, and, abandoning 
the chase of wild beasts, make man his favo^' 
rite prey. An official report made in 1819 
the government of India, showed that, in ** 
single district of no great extent, eighty-fn^*^ 
inhabitants had been devoured in the preceding ^ 
year by tigers. In the low marshy islands 
the mouth of the Ganges, numbers of the 
sons employed in the salt works are annual^ 
destroyed by these daring animals, which 
even take to the sea and swim from one islan*^ 
to another in quest of prey. In short, 
tiger is the scourge of a great portion of sout^^' 
ern Asia and of the Indian islands. 
The swiftness and the strength of this aO’' 
mal are such, that it will seize a man 
horseback, pull him from the saddle, and, hol^^' 
ing him in his mouth, carry him by surprisi^t’ 
bounds or leaps into the nearest covert. 
weight of a man, or even a heavier animal 
its mouth, does not appear to incommode 
