Fight Between a Tiger and an Alligator.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 451, 5 March 1890, Page 3

Fight Between a Tiger and an Alligator.

A small party were on a trip through the Sunderbunds. It was a hot, sultry day ;in fact, a regular griller. As they went on in their boat they had observed during the morning a large number of alligators asleep on the shore. As the day rose higher, the numbers gradually decreased, till at length onlvone or two solitary ones were to be seen. The tide turned, and the party anchored out in the stream, there being too little water to come close in. The shore for some distance was sandy and bare, but about half a mile in the interior tho thick jungle reared its myriad boughs to a cloudless sky. Opposite where they were one huge alligator, stretching out its sealy length on the sands, lay fast asleep. They had observed it for some time, when one of the party, touching his friend's hands, pointed at the jungle. Slowly issuing from the close brushwood was seen an immense tiger. Softly and with silent steps it advanced, raised up one foot, poised it some time in the air, then, quietly lowering it, raised the other, crouching till its belly nearly touched the ground. In this way it advanced exactly as a cat when stealing upon a mouse. Having come within its bounding distance, it rose, lifted its tail and then, lashing it on tho ground, leapt. The next second it was on the alligator’s back, and holding on by the nape of the neck. The monster of the deep, thus rudely shaken from his midday slumber, opened his terrific jaws, and tried to seize the tiger in vain. It then employed its sawlike tail, and lashed the sides of the forest denizen, but still the tiger held on. The contest thus kept on some time. At length the efforts of the alligator became weaker and weaker, till at last they ceased altogether. Still the tiger held on. After some time he left go his hold, got off the brute’s hack, and seizing it by the body, dragged it some distance on the shore, and there sat over it exactly (to return to my former simile) as a cat does over a mouse. For a while it sat thus, thon, rising, dragged it into the jungle. Bub the strangest) parb is yet behind. About an hour after this what should be seen but the poor alligator crawling towards the water much lacerated bub nob killed, a proof that _ the tiger does not kill simply because he is hungry.