ost possible to see in
fancy the miserable band of shivering fugitives fleeing over the ice of
the restless river in the deep cold of the winter's night, chased by the
fierce winds, half lost in the blinding snow. They made their way to the
Connecticut shore. A very remarkable escape from the Old Sugar-House is
related of a Boston prisoner. He dug a passage under Liberty Street from
the prison to the cellar of the house on the opposite side of the way.
The difficulty of making the excavation will be plain to every one who
looks at the labors of a party of workmen opening a trench for gas-pipes
or water. Yet the Boston boy burrowed under-ground until he found
himself free.

The prison-ships were retained in use until 1783. Several were burned at
different times, either by accident or by the prisoners in their
despair. At the close of the war the remaining ships were all sunk or
burned. A few years ago the wreck of the old _Jersey_ could still be
seen on the Wallabout shore.

THE TIGER.

The royal tiger of Asia is an animal celebrated for its beauty and its
agility, cunning, and prodigious strength. Its skin is a bright tawny
yellow, with glossy black stripes running downward from its back. Its
tail, which is long and supple, is ringed with black, and its large head
is marked in a very handsome manner. It is like a great cat. Its puffy
cheeks are ornamented with white whiskers, and its big paws are like
those of a pussy magnified fifty times. Its motions are very graceful,
and whether lying down, its nose on its paw, sleeping, or walking
through the paths of its native jungle with soft cat-like tread, it
appears formed of muscle and sinew, without a bone in its body, so
gracefully does it curve and twist itself as it moves.

The tiger is not considered a courageous beast by hunters, who say that
if it is faced boldly, it will turn and slink away among the bushes, if
it can. But if it can attack a hunter from behind, it will spring upon
him, filling the air with its savage growls, and probably kill him with
the first blow of its mighty paw.

The strength of this creature is almost incredible. It will break the
skull of an ox, or even that of a buffalo, with the greatest ease. A
story is told of a buffalo belonging to a peasant in India, which, while
passing through a swamp, became helplessly entangled in the mire and
underbrush. The peasant left the buffalo, and went to beg his neighbors
to assist him in extr