ching down, he prepared to make the fatal spring at his victim. At
this instant, however, the officer, taking off a bear skin cap which he
wore, swung it in the air, and shouted as loudly as he could. This so
frightened the tiger that he made off with himself, and was soon out of
sight in the bushes.

A European gentleman, who has spent some time in Java, tells us a
thrilling story about the adventure of a criminal with a tiger. The poor
man was condemned, as is the custom in that country, to fight a large
royal tiger, whose ferocity was raised to the highest point by want of
food and artificial irritation. The only weapon allowed to the human
combatant was a lance, with the point broken off. After wrapping a cloth
round his left fist and arm, the man entered the arena with an air of
undaunted calmness, and fixed a steady, menacing gaze upon the brute.
The tiger sprang furiously upon his intended victim, who, with
extraordinary boldness and rapidity, thrust his left fist into the
gaping jaws, and at the same moment, with his keen, pointless dagger,
ripped up the breast to the very heart. In less than a minute the tiger
lay dead at his conqueror's feet. The criminal was forgiven.

[Illustration: THE TIGER.]

Several years ago, an Englishman, by the name of Munro, was killed by a
tiger in the East Indies. The particulars of this distressing scene are
given by an eye-witness. "We went on shore," says the writer of the
narrative, "to shoot deer, of which we saw innumerable tracks, as well
as of tigers; notwithstanding which, we continued our diversion till
near three o'clock, when, sitting down by the side of a jungle to
refresh ourselves, a roar like thunder was heard, and an immense tiger
seized on our unfortunate friend, and rushed again into the jungle,
dragging him through the thickest bushes and trees, every thing giving
way to his monstrous strength; a tigress accompanied his progress. The
united agonies of horror, regret, and fear, rushed at once upon us. I
fired on the tiger; he seemed agitated; my companion fired also, and, in
a few minutes after this, our unfortunate friend came up to us bathed in
blood. Every medical assistance was vain, and he expired in the space of
twenty-four hours, having received such deep wounds from the teeth and
claws of the animal, as rendered his recovery hopeless. A large fire,
consisting of ten or twelve whole trees, was blazing by us at the time
this accident took place, and ten