3-028-701 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A tiger-hunting party in India: preparing to start, 1870. Engraving of a photograph by Colonel Ross, commanding the 24th (Second Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot, of a hunt near Hyderabad, conducted by Captain Hastings Fraser. '...five men had been killed and three or four wounded by two tigers. It was therefore high time to rid the country of these animals; otherwise they might have become confirmed man-eaters...In a very short time two shots in succession, and a prolonged whistle from a gallant officer commanding a cavalry corps, told me that at least one of the far-famed tigers of Agapilly had bit the dust. We were much gratified with the result of the day's sport, as the animal bagged proved a remarkably fine specimen, measuring between nine and ten feet, and standing four feet at the shoulder. Seldom has a finer stud of elephants been collected...and these, with a variety of hawks, riding camels, and native shikarees, in one group, formed as splendid a picture as it has been my good fortune to see...The skins of these beasts it has been my pleasing duty, as master of the ceremonies, to present to two of the ladies who accompanied me: one to the wife of the gallant Colonel who was mainly instrumental in killing the first tiger'. From "Illustrated London News, 1870.