Tigers and Tiger-Hunting

"'Tigers and Tiger Hunting,' by Sir Samuel Baker, is a narrative of deeds of daring, courage, and wonderful skill...forethought, judgment...coolness, decision, intimate knowledge of the ways and habits of tigers...command of temper." -London Guardian, Dec. 9, 1891

"There have been many mighty hunters since the days of Nimrod, but none more expert, more adventurous, nor more enthusiastic than Sir Samuel Baker, nor have any had a wider experience." -Boston Weekly Globe, March 3, 1891

"Few living sportsmen can boast so magnificent an experience as is recorded by Sir Samuel Baker." -London Times, May 22, 1891

How was reputed 19th century big game hunter Sir Samuel Baker finally able to vanquish a man-eating tiger that had terrorized villagers in India for years?

In 1891, Sir Samuel Baker published a short 30-page narrative of his many tiger hunting adventures in India under the title "Tigers and Tiger Hunting." It is this writing that has been republished here for the convenience of the interested hunter.

About the author:

Sir Samuel White Baker (1821 -1893) was an English explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist.

Baker lived as a reputed Victorian Nimrod and was a milestone in the history of modern hunting through his works and deeds. He was proud of his British heritage and was an advocate of the virtues of his nation, and a fighter against slavery.

Sir Samuel Baker in hunting attire with trophies of rhino and buffalo.

An acclaimed sportsman, he likely started hunting in the Scottish Highlands; his skills were renowned, and he once gave a demonstration to friends in Scotland of how he could, with dogs, successfully hunt down a stag armed only with a knife, he did the same with the large boars in the jungles of Ceylon. He hunted consistently until his last years, in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

Baker forged his skills chasing Asian elephants and sambar deer in Ceylon, a place where Rowland Ward's records account him for some of the world's largest wild boar trophies. He travelled looking for sport in Asia Minor in 1860, in Scotland in 1869 for red stag, in the Rocky Mountains in 1881 downing elk, grizzly and buffalo. In 1886, he was in the French Alps, looking for brown bear and many times in India in 1885 and 1887-1889 pursuing tigers and blackbuck. His most memorable cynegetic (hunting-related) exploits remained the episodes in Africa and Ceylon, where he returned again towards the end of his life in 1887. He also visited for sport, Transylvania for bears, Serbia for wild boars, Hungary for deer, Cyprus in 1879, China and Japan.

Baker left a wealth of study in the science of hunting firearms and ballistics, and accounts as one of the world's few hunters that used the two bore rifle, the world's largest gun calibre for the purpose. He described in great detail his observations of the animal world, account in which, his book Wild Beasts And Their Ways (1890) ranks highest.