th the
sun. I rode forward, and on looking over the bank, the leopard started
up and sneaked off alongside of the tall reeds, and was instantly out of
sight. I fired a random shot from the saddle, to encourage the dogs, and
shouted to them; they, however, stood looking stupidly round, and would
not take up his scent at all. I led them over his spoor again and again,
but to no purpose; the dogs seemed quite stupid, and yet they were Wolf
and Boxer, my two best. At length I gave it up as a lost affair, and was
riding down the river's bank, when I heard Wolf give tongue behind me,
and galloping back I found him at bay, with the leopard immediately
beneath where I had first fired at him; he was very severely wounded,
and had slipped down into the river's bed, and doubled back, whereby he
had thrown out both the dogs and myself. As I approached, he flew out
upon Wolf and knocked him over, and then running up the bed of the river
he took shelter in a thick bush. Wolf, however, followed him, and at
this moment my other dogs came up, having heard the shot, and bayed him
fiercely. He sprang out upon them, and then crossed the river's bed,
taking shelter beneath some large tangled roots on the opposite bank. As
he crossed the river, I put a third bullet into him, firing from the
saddle, and as soon as he came to bay I gave him a fourth, which
finished him. This leopard was a very fine old male. In the conflict,
the unfortunate Alert was wounded as usual, getting his face torn open.
He was still going on three legs, with all his breast laid bare by the
first water-buck."

Major Denham in his interesting travels, gives the following account of
an adventure with a huge panther, which occurred during the expedition
to Mandara: "We had started several animals of the leopard species, who
ran from us so swiftly, twisting their long tails in the air, as to
prevent our getting near them. We, however, now started one of a larger
kind, which Maramy assured me was so satiated with the blood of a negro,
whose carcase we found lying in the wood, that he would be easily
killed. I rode up to the spot just as a Shonaa had planted the first
spear in him, which passed through the neck a little above the shoulder,
and came down between the animal's legs; he rolled over, broke the
spear, and bounded off with the lower half in his body. Another Shonaa
galloped up within two arms' length and thrust a second through his
loins; and the savage animal, wit