Even though the camp in Barbatta valley had been well chosen and the surroundings were very promising for hunting as the events of the day before had shown, the camp was dismantled early in the morning and transferred 11 km east to Dechta Boli.

While the train column was going by the shortest way, we rode with around 100 elephants through thick jungle towards the new camping ground. Even though the hunting ground looked promising at first, we encountered not much game, so that I only bagged a crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) and a muntjac. Only close to the river on whose bank our already nearly completely pitched camp was rising,  peacocks and jungle hens took to the air of which we caught a few.

After the arrival in the camp, I saw the head shikari ride towards the forest jungle north of the river followed by a number of elephants,  which made me conclude that there was hope for a tiger hunt during this day. I did not misjudge the situation as only two hours later a messenger asked us to follow the head shikari to a certain spot where they had encircled a tiger in the jungle, in the middle of a gorgeous forest. I stood in a thickly overgrown basin out of which after a short time the tiger came rushing out with a roar, only to turn towards Clam, after it had been hit by two bullets of mine. Clam killed it with another shot and it crashed down into the grass. All this happened in only a few moments. Jubilating the Nepalese stood around the strong tiger which they had confirmed so well. It was carried back to the camp on the back of an elephant — an imposing view — where it was placed into the hands of Hodek.

Every time he strips a tiger of its skin, the natives surround him waiting for the moment in which the taxidermist has completed his work. Then they rush in like vultures on the tiger to get a piece as tiger meat is said to have especially  great healing power. As arcana, the liver and the fat are treasured the most.

When darkness came, we could see a jungle fire far away — a spectacle one can appreciate here often as the natives burn down the dry grass to promote the growth of new sprouts.

Links

• Location: Dechta Boli, Nepal
• ANNO – on 14.03.1893 in Austria’s newspapers.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is playing the comedy „Die Welt, in der man sich langweilt“, while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is performing Richard Wagner’s  „Rheingold“.