24 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
can reach its goal. A solid bullet may deflect 
slightly, but it will generally deliver its message 
direct, unless the opposing objects are more for¬ 
midable than ordinary small branches. A hollow 
bullet from an Express rifle will fly into fragments 
should it strike a twig the size of the little finger. 
This is quite sufficient to condemn the hollow pro¬ 
jectile without any further argument. 
While writing the above, I have received the 
Pioneer, 24th June 1888, which gives the following 
account of an escape from a tiger a few weeks ago 
by Mr. Cuthbert Fraser, and no better example 
could be offered to prove the danger of a hollow 
bullet. It will be seen that a solid bullet would 
have killed the tiger on the spot, as it would have 
penetrated to the brain, instead of which it broke 
into the usual fragments when striking the hard 
substance of the teeth, and merely destroyed one 
eye. The bullet evidently splashed up without 
breaking the jaw, as the wounded animal was not 
only capable of killing the orderly, but Mr. Fraser 
“ heard, in fact, the crunching of the man’s bones.” 
He says “ that he felt that he had the tiger 
dead when he fired, but the Express bullet unfor¬ 
tunately broke up.” He had fired the left-hand 
barrel into the tiger’s chest without the slightest 
result in checking the onset; had that been a 
solid bullet it would have penetrated to the heart or 
lungs. 
