File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17973704690).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo18amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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O -V o O t o THE AMERICAS MUSEUM JOURNAL seized the dog, which had been wired to a tree, and pulled it away. It was evi- dent that he was quite unconscious of the trap, for his forefeet had actually been placed upon one of the jaws only two inches from tlio pan which would have sprung it. One afternoon we responded to a call from Bui-tao, a village seven miles be- yond Lung-tao, where the blue tiger had been seen that day. The natives assured us that the animal continually crossed a ridge thickly clothed with pines and sword grass just above the village, and even though it Avas late when we arrived, Harry thought it wise to set the trap that niglit. It was pitch dark Ijefore we reached
Text Appearing After Image:
' \, y' '. '\ /i A Chinese ijriest of the Ling-suik monastery. — These priests are often fugitives from justice and are extremely unprepossessing individuals the ridge—carrying the trap, two lan- terns, an electric flash lamp, and a wretched little dog for bait. We had been engaged for about fifteen minutes making a pen for the dog and Caldwell and I were on our knees over the trap when suddenly a low rumbling growl came from the grass not twenty feet away. We jumped to our feet just as it sounded again, this time ending in a snarl. The tiger had arrived a few mo- ments too early and we were in the rather uncomfortable position of hav- ing to return to the village by way of a narrow trail through the jungle. With our rifles ready and the electric lamp cutting a brilliant path in the darkness we walked slowly toward the edge of the sword grass, hoping to see the flash of the tiger's eyes, but the beast backed ofi^ Ijeyond the range of the light into an impenetrable tangle where we could not follow. Apparently he was fright- ened by the lantern for we did not hear him again. After nearly a month of disappoint- ments such as these, Mr. Heller ^ joined us at Bui-tao with Mr. Kellogg.^ Cald- well tliought it advisable to shift camp to the Ling-suik monastery about twelve miles away, where he once had spent a summer with his family and had killed several tigers. This was within the blue tiger's range and, moreover, had the advantage of offering a lietter general collecting ground than Bui-tao; thus with Heller to look after the small mammals we could begin to make our time count for something if we did not get the tiger. Ling-suik is a beautiful temple, or rather series of temples, built into a hillside at the end of a long narrow valley which swells out like a great Ijowl l^etwefn bamboo-clothed moun- tains, two thousand feet in height. On ' Mr. Edmund Heller was a member of the American Museum's Asiatic Zoological Expedition; his efforts were directed particularly toward the collection of small mammals. Mr. Claude Kellogg was an instructor in the Anglo-Chinese College, at Fuchow, China, who rendered great assistance to the expedition.

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