"Interesting account of a desperate hand-to-hand encounter between the author and a full-grown tiger." - BROAD ARROW

"Interested me immensely, a very fine example of pluck and self-confidence." -F.C. Selous, 1902

"It is impossible to read the incident here related without being affected both by its peril and pathos." – EXAMINER

"Very interesting." -Winston Churchill, 1902

"An exciting adventure, graphically described." - UNITED SERVICE GAZETTE

"Should certainly find a place in every library." - VOLUNTEER GAZETTE

When Sheffield fell with a 10 ½ foot tiger on the top of him, its mouth touching his face, he understood exactly how a mouse must feel when clutched by a housecat.

He had been out shooting birds with an old fowling-piece, when a villager came and asked if he would shoot a tiger, which he said was couched in a mulberry field about a mile distant. Colonel Sheffield fancied it would prove to be a leopard, but he whittled down two explosive bullets which he had, so they might go into the fowling-piece, and fearlessly went in where he "saw within thirty yards a most magnificent Royal Bengal tiger, his head slightly raised and his weather eye taking stock of me . . ."

In 1902, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Sheffield (1840-1921) of the Royal Fusiliers, having had many and strange adventures in India, in a 25-page little book entitled "How I Killed the Tiger," set down a detailed account of one of his most daring encounters and one of his narrowest escapes. The English friend who accompanied the writer on his shikar may possibly complain that his own precipitous flight at a critical moment is represented with more humour than charity.

To have attacked so dangerous an animal as a Bengal tiger alone and on foot, armed with a weapon quite unsuited for such an encounter made Sheffield a minor celebrity, attracting newspaper publicity, including among others the following reviews:

"The narrative is a thrilling one, for the author, having been badly mauled, as nearly as possible lost his life." -FIELD

"Many hundreds of natives are killed by tigers every year in India. The man who slays a tiger haunting an Indian village does good service to the community." - DAILY NEWS

"The incident described cannot fail to interest every sportsman." - DAILY GRAPHIC

"He certainly tells it very well; his style is clear and manly." - EXAMINER

"The story has one great merit, namely, that it is an absolutely true account of a really terrible adventure." - UNITED SER VICE MAGAZINE

Reading Sheffield's little book at a distance and in safety, one might be inclined to think that his attack on the tiger, insufficiently armed as he was and with no retreat open to him, was foolhardy in the extreme. Yet the author's senseless act may very well have saved the lives of many nearby villagers.