( 3 ) 
been conclusively proved, and in spite of the discussions of recent years, 
it appears to me that nothing more remains to be said on this subject. Old 
time sportsmen, whose veracity cannot be questioned, have vouched for tigers 
12 feet and over, and though, for reasons that are obvious to present day sports¬ 
men, the occurrence of these huge felines is now-a-days extremely unlikely, 
there is no more reason to doubt their former existence than there is to question 
that of other big game, such as deer, and the great sheep and goats of the 
Himalayas, wdiich years ago sported trophies infinitely larger than anything the 
sportsman brings to bag in these days of universal shikar and over-shot 
grounds. 
General Sir C. Reid, k.c.b., records a tiger of 12 ft. 2 ins., the skin of 
which measured 13 ft. 5 ins. {Sterndale s Mammalia). Col. G. Boileau, Col. 
Ramsay and Mr C. Shillingford, the famous Purneah tiger slayer, are credited 
by Sterndale with tigers of 12 feet, while Sir H. Green, Sir J. E. Yule, the Hon, 
R. Drummond, Col. D. G. Stewart and Col. Shakespeare vouch for tigers 11 ft. 
and upwards. Col, J. Sherman, Sir E. Bradford, the Hon. Sir H. Ramsay, 
Sir Joseph Fayrer and Mr. F. B. Sifnson, (“Judex’M and several others 
whose names were household-words among Indian sportsmen in bygone years, 
all give particulars of tigers, 10 feet 5 inches and upwards—all measured be¬ 
fore the skins were removed. Mr. A. S. Shillingford, writing some years ago 
in an Indian sporting paper, said concerning big tigers measuring between 
