n finished the work. The cover was then
entirely removed, and the carcase taken out of the trap; the fore and
hind feet were tied together, and it was slung on a pole in the usual
way, eight Kling convict coolies lifted the load and started for the
sugar mills. They, however, soon got tired. Half a dozen more convicts,
who were at work on the road, were then called in to assist, and at last
they reached their journey's end.

On arrival at the sugar mills it was skinned, the skin becoming the
property of the manager, and the natives disposed of the flesh. The
animal proved to be a tigress, and evidently had young cubs, as she had
a quantity of milk. This the Chinese coolies were very eager to secure,
as it is by them considered to be a valuable medicine. We never heard
whether any more tigers were caught in this trap.

The ordinary method, however, adopted for catching tigers is by means of
pits, which are dug from twelve to fifteen feet in depth, and somewhat
pyramidal in form. Sometimes pointed stakes are fixed in the bottom of
the pit. The mouth is covered over with light brushwood, and when
convenient, a tree is felled and laid a few feet from it across the
tiger's track, so that the animal in leaping off the tree adds impetus
to his own weight in falling into the trap.

The trouble of digging these pits is not so slight as might be
supposed, as the construction of a pit in the proper manner fully
occupies a couple of convicts a fortnight, besides the risk of being
interrupted in their labour by the tiger happening to encounter them,
and, naturally enough, on finding the work they were engaged upon,
testifying his displeasure at the treachery they were meditating against
him by making a meal of them.

An Indian sportsman wrote to the _Singapore Free Press_, at the time
when so many Chinese were being destroyed at Singapore, saying:--

"I have been accustomed to tiger hunting in India, but the same
mode could not be adopted here, the jungle being of a different
character. Indeed, the only plan which is likely to be attended
with success is by setting traps; and it is to be regretted
that the local Government did not long since take some pains to
prove this to the cultivators. Had this been done, many lives
might have been spared." The Chinese were evidently delighted
at the interest shown by the European gentlemen on the last
occasion, and it is to be hoped that they will exert