Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930), Sunday 10 August 1913, page 1


TIGER v©' WILD BOAR

One of Those I crrib'o Ail-in. Battles Which it is Rarely the Lot of Man to Witness A SCENE IN AN. EASTERN JUNGLE. A Host of Crocodiles and a Handful of Humans Watch the Death Struggle of the Magnificent Adversaries.

Captain Quinton is telling in the New York j -hristian Herald' some stories of his thrill- j .us adventures, of which the following' forms i ' no of the most exciting: — » ; After a long voyage through the South | ihe ship on which Captain Quinton was j voyaging made port at Singapore. Four ad- !

\''Titurous Russians, who contemplated col- 1 !? ?'.?ting skins, curios, and orchids, purchased j I ! 'i' and headed for the Sunderbunds, a ; | of forests, jungles, creeks, and rivers I ' \tending two hundred, miles east and west, with a. breadth of eighty miles, at the head -?:' the Bay of Bengal. It is probably the. ?-' iiiiost place on earth, and swarms with 'ii.l boars, crocodiles, .tigers, leopards, moneys. serpents, and birds of strange and rare I image. The ship was towed up the Ray?iiaugal River and anchored at the entrance t' a creek. Then, taking their launch, the :-iri y set off exploring. After numerous en- -'infers with the dangerous beasts of the . 1 uien. they emerged late in the afternoon on | is' bank of a swift stream, and moored the j launch. KILLS A SUCKLING. ! On the other side in a small glade surrounded by dense jungle a wild sow and her liiior of half-grown pigs were contentedly ' oiing among the rank sedge. The river v;:s infested with crocodiles, whose ugly -r.uuts could be seen moving along slowly in ! midstream. As they watched the picture a { ? -vr suddenly leaped from the nearby bushes ! i-i.'i struck one of the young sucklings dead i vith a blow of his paw, and, picking it up! i:' his mouth, trotted away to begin his re- j ' ! THE BOAR FACES THE TIGER. j The rest of the pigs meanwhile had set up j tcrrific squealing, and. as if in answer to j s!:cir cries, a magnificent boar broke - from j jungle 'and confronted the tiger. The . 'zer dropped his prey and for a moment tiio two savage antagonists surveyed each in 'Menacing silence.: The tiger' beat his sides j it.h his tail and uttered a coughing growl, J io which the boar replied by tossing his j powerful head and uttering a loud 'Woof ! j '?'of !' of resolute defiance. The tiger then -? ' 'an circling around his antagonist for the j ? vi'lent purpose of attacking him in the rear, ! those beasts invariably attempt to do when j I'liout. to attack a really dangerous enemy., j '''no. boar as resolutely faced the tiger and ? cleverly manoeuvred until they were ? :i:if three yards apart, when the boar, fwith ' sudden 'Woof ! ? woof ! ' made' a particui- rly vicious lunge at the tiger. NOTHING BUT DEATH WOULD- , STOP IIBL It has been well said that wheil' a wild boar I

makes a charge nothing but death will stop him; it proved to be true in this instance.. I was surprised to see that the tiger did not spring upon the boar, as I had always read that these beasts did; instead he crouched low until the boar was within range, then, leaping nimbly to one side and rising on his haunches, Mr. Tiger aimed a blow at the boar's hindquarters, where he would be most easily disabled. But the boar wheeled like lightning, and the blow landed upon the upper- part of his shoulder, where the hide is almost as impervious as if it were sheathed with boiler plate. Before the tiger coulil recover the boar dashed underneath his guard, as a prizefighter would say, and actually bore him bacli by main strength. The tiger cried out with pain and rage, and fought with teeth and claws, while the tusks of the boar were cutting him through like sword blades. Tho tiger tried to get clear of the boar, with the evident intention of fighting at longer range, but the boar, grim and silent, stuck to him as relentlessly as death itself. In a short time the tiger was so feaVfully gored that he endeavored to crawl away from his antagonist, but the boar followed him and never stopped attacking even after every vestige of life had vanished from the almost shapeless remains of the tiger. Finally the boar paused, and, after looking carefully over tho remains of his enemy as if to make sure that he was dead, crawled away and lay down to rest. We all agreed that it would be far more merciful to shoot him than to leave him perish slowly oi' his wounds and scratches, but none of us had the heart to do it after he had so gallantly defended his family, but 'even while a\ e were debating the matter he pulled himself off into the thick jungle, w'here the rest of his family had disappeared. j CROCODILES VIEW /THE CONFLICT. . The noise of the combat attracted the crocodiles, for we ilow counted dozens 'of them swimming towards the scene of conflict! One of them got up on the bank ahead of. his' companions, and, seizing- the remains of the tiger, was about to indulge in a comfortable meal when two or three others closed in on him and fought for the prize. It. was now late in the day, says s Captain Quinton, and we made all, speed to return to aur headquarters, especially as the mosquitoes were - terribly troublesome. We had ?ot about half way when all of a sudden a whole family of wild pigs plunged pell mell into the stream on our left and began swimming for the opposite bank in great haste; .to jscapo crocodiles. ? The pigs, understood perfectly' well the risk hey were running, and several- long, con-'

verging lines of ripples showed that crocodiles were pursuing them. We slowed down for the purpose of intercepting the pigs and securing one or two of the young ones, which are very good eating. They were nearly abreast of the launch when one of the smallest gave a pitiful little squeal and disappeared from view. Two of the ubiquitous crocodiles had evidently seized it. Fearing that if we- shot one of the pigs it would sink and be lost, we ran close to them, and Cassim dexterously seized one by the hind legs and hauled it on board just as the ugly head of a .crocodile emerged from the water and the huge jaws snapped together like a steel trap within about a fbot of the squealing pig. Before the hideous thing had time to withdraw Kcrovin fired with the muzzle of his revolver almost touching the monster's jaws, and blew off the top of his nose, while, someone else shot him in the side. The next moment we were deluged with spray from the monster's tail as it struck the water with a force that would have stove a hole in the launch had Ave not been going fast enough to avoid it. But now an unforseen difficulty confronted us, for the squealing 'of the pig attracted crocodiles from every direction to /the launch, and excited them to such an ' extent that it really seemed for a while that I they would make a combined attack upon us. } It was difficult to shoot the pig or even to j cut its throat in the bottom of a launch, and 110 power in nature could apparently stop its perfectly appalling squeals. ' The more it I squealed the more it excited the crocodiles. Crocodiles now started pursuing the launch iu the same way they had been pursuing the pigs,, and it was a thrilling moment. THE CROCODILES SHOW FIGHT. 'Look out for their tails,' cried the two. Hindoos together; 'they are liable to sweep us and knock someone overboard.' They had; scarcely more than spoken when an unusually large one raised his head and rested it upon our gunwale, then opened his jaws to the fullest extent and snapped savagely at the nearest mail within his reach. But we blew most of his head to pieces with rifle shots, and saved in a twinkling the man he would have hauled overboard. The whole party, of us .opened a fusilade upon the . reptiles by. this time, and were inclined to regard the -matter as fine sport, although -Cassim and Ghoolah both declared that if our 1 machinery broke down and the launch was : disabled the crocodiles would » swarm on 1 board and sink us in spite of.. all we might 1 do to prevent it. ~ ' We slowed, down for some time* and soon i noticed that the crocodiles around us were ' rapidlyjuereasing in numbersas weir as in -

— — — « — — — | boldness. Under ordinary circumstances t they seem to fear the report of firearms, but j the squealing of the pig evidently made them ! reckless. One man was resting his rifle on j the gunwale in the act. of aiming at a crocodile a few feet away when another of the brutes suddenly raised his head alongside, and seizing the rifle with his teeth, jerked, it overboard, very nearly carrying the owner along with it. The brutes now seemed to have lost all fear of firearms, although the wounded were violently plunging and contorting in every direction. The situation assumed a more serious aspect when some of them' began to* poke their snouts over the side of the launch and snap at us. So w;e started up full speed for the ship. To our utter dismay the whole herd of crocodiles not only came along Avith us, but others seemed to spring up on all sides and join in the pursuit. . BEATING THE SAURIANS WITH KEROSENE. It was now hear sundown, and would be dark before we could reach the ship; because j in the tropics the darkness follows almost j instantly upon sunset. We knew that crocodiles are far bolder in the dark than by daylight, and that they would stay AA'ith us as long as Ave had the pig. I believe the brutes could smell the pig in the bottom of the boat, for they, followed us all the- Avav to the ship and became so , ag-gressive that we were obliged to drive them 3ff in a somewhat novel way before getting ;he pig and dogs on board. We poured a quantity of kerosene on the Avater all round ihe launch and, as they usually swim with Lheir eyes on a level with the surface, the stuff got into their eyes and annoyed them to such an extent that they kept at a distance md we got safely away. '