As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter and anti matter......
There is not much to be added to this, as I find time and again Lord Randolph Churchill sums up the information prefectly. The only problem is though in hunting tales, one would have hoped for 300 pages concerning an Indian Tiger Hunt.
One would speak of rifles, the smell of cordite, snakes in the crapper, crocodiles chopping off native legs and how lovely sundowners were at dusk.
Lord Churchill gives a glimpse of life in it's reality and he deserves the stage over 100 years since he penned this adventure to his Mum.
"I have had the great good fortune to kill a tiger. It was our last day, and the party proposed to shoot ducks and snipe; but for that I did not much care and suggested that I and a Mr. Hersey (an English gentleman who is living in the district) should go into the forest on the chance of seeing deer and perhaps getting a sambur -stag, while the others went to shoot ducks. This was agreed to, and the others bet fifty rupees they would have the heaviest bag.
Well, Hersey and I, each on an elephant and accompanied only by two other elephants, were beating an open space in the forest when I came upon the recently killed carcase of a hog, half devoured. Hersey, when he saw it, declared it was quite fresh, and that the tiger must be close by. You may imagine the excitement. We beat on through the place and then came through it again, for it was very thick high grass. All of a sudden out bundled this huge creature, right under the nose of Hersey’s elephant, and made off across some ground which was slightly open. Hersey fired, and missed.
I fired, and hit him just above the tail. (A very good shot, for he only showed me his stern, and he was at least forty yards off.) Hersey then fired his second barrel, and broke his shoulder, which brought him up (literally with a round turn). He took refuge in a patch of grass about fifty yards from us, where we could just see bits of him. Heavens, how he growled and what a rage he was in! He would have charged us but that he was disabled by Hersey’s last shot . We remained still, and gave him four or five more shots, which, on subsequent examination, we found all told; and then, after about five minutes’ more awful growling, he expired. Great joy to all.
The good luck of getting him was unheard of at this time of year; the odds were a hundred to one against such a thing. He was a magnificent specimen, nine feet seven inches in length, and a splendid skin—which will, I think, look very well in Grosvenor Square. This is certainly the acme of sport. I never shall forget the impression produced by this huge brute breaking cover; or, indeed, the mingled joy and consternation of the other party when they saw him— for they had to pay up fifty rupees. They had got a black buck and a blue bull, and thought they had certainly won.
Tigers in the Zoo give one very little idea of what the wild animal is like."
Yes tigers in the zoo are nothing like the real prey in the wild, exactly like an Obama in dope patch in Hawaii is not the same Chin in the White House having SEALS light up his choom.
The vent shot on a large animal is completely just, but it shows like bears to buffalo just how much it requires to make them give up the growl.
How much I would appreciate to handle the firearms which Lord Randolph and Sir Winston went on safari with.
agtG
