Iron County Register

THE LADY AND THE TIGER.

Very Largest Animal of the Kind Ever Killed in India, Shot by American Woman.

A slender young American woman had the recent distinction of shooting the largest tiger ever killed in India, and is entitled to the bounty offered by the British government.

The heroine of this exploit is Mrs. Donnett, wife of an English army officer on service in India, daughter of John H. Whitehouse, of Irvington on-the-Hudson, says the St. Paul Pioneer-Press.

Mrs. Donnett has been spending December and January with her husband and a party of friends hunting big game in the Chanda jungle of Northern India, in the midst of 12,000 square miles of forest reserves abounding in all kinds of savage beasts and other big game. She has killed two tigers, four panthers, four bears, eight boars and several other wild beasts, while the rest of the party killed nine other tigers and a corresponding number of less dangerous animals. Mrs. Donnett's second tiger measured 10 feet 8 inches in length and is the largest ever killed in India. Her first tiger measured 8 feet 4 inches. In a letter dated January 12 last, this extraordinary young woman describes the event and her sensations in a simple but graphic manner.

"I am the proud slayer of the largest tiger ever shot in India," she exclaims with girlish enthusiasm, "and he fell at my first shot. He measures 10 feet 8 inches, has a perfect coat, and teeth two inches long. It took 16 men to carry him to camp and I did it all myself and it was such a difficult shot. But I must settle down and tell you all about it. I am sort of a big bug in camp now. The natives bow down and kiss the hem of my dress, for I am the first lady who has ever shot in these great jungles. Ah, I am a lucky beggar. So just listen while I tell you all about it.

"We heard a tiger had killed a lot of deer in a piece of bamboo jungle about six miles off, so Timmins, my husband, got about 40 beaters together and we took up our positions near an open space, while the beaters went into the jungle with drums and horns, driving six buffalo in front of them, and made hideous noises. After about half an hour when the beast was nearly up to my tree I saw what I first took for a deer gliding through the high grass and bamboo, when suddenly an opening revealed a huge tiger to my astonished gaze. He was going full bat, so I saw it was a case of then or never, and although it was a very blind shot I let blaze at the vanishing stripes as they flashed through the bamboos.

"A roar and rush told me the monster was hit, but I could see nothing, as the jungle was so dense. When the shikar came up I told him where I had fired and got down, and with loaded rifles we approached the spot where about ten yards from where I fired lay the very finest monster I ever saw, and his great striped body did indeed look like a slain king of the forest. The shikar and I all but hugged in our excitement, and when the bearers came up our hurrahs and jubilant exclamations brought Timmins tumbling down out of his tree, and his joy and pride quite touched me. The monster was indeed glorious with his 10 feet 8 inches spread out to their full, his gums rolled up showing his enormous teeth and his skin in its prime, and, oh, so beautifully yellow and black.

"I had already shot three bears, two panthers and a tiger, besides all sorts of deer and other smaller beasts, and when I saw that monster lying there slain by my own hands it was the proudest and happiest moment of my life, and I shall never get over the feeling of exultation."