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On the subject of Rest Houses and Visitor Books ...

Folks may know that when hunting of tigers was legal, it was compulsory and customary to record the size of the tiger shot .... for the record. There were two ways to measure the length of a tiger - one was to lay the animal on the ground, hammer a wooden peg into the ground at the tip of the nose, and hammer another peg at the base of the tail. The distance between the pegs was referred to as the length of the tiger 'between the pegs'.

Another way was to place one end of the tape measure at the tip of the nose, run the tape along the length of the animal over its head, along its back and up to the base of the tail. This was referred to as measuring the tiger 'over the curves'. For the record, the largest tiger ever shot by Corbett was the 'Bachelor of Powalgarh' who measured 10 feet between the pegs and 10 feet 7 inches over the curves.

Now this story was narrated to me by a forest officer from UP.

In the visitors book of an FRH in Dehra Dun Division was a note .... "Shot a tiger this morning. 12 feet between the pegs. Signed XXXX, Lt. Col."

Below this was another note ... "Between how many pegs?" (of whiskey)

Hunters, fishermen and golfers .... and their tall tales!

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