BIG GAME 129 



of his native friends, also armed and equip- 

 ped, and upon arriving at the hill each was 

 assigned his position to guard ; soon the 

 priest discovered the tiger crouching at the 

 base of a rock on which he was standing 

 and shot the beast dead. Fortunately, how- 

 ever, for the priest the tiger was killed, as 

 the gun used was double barrelled and in 

 the excitement of the moment, both barrels 

 being discharged at the same time, the 

 priest was found on the other side of the 

 rock almost insensible from its recoil. I 

 hope my reader will not complain of the 

 details I may give in connection with the 

 inclinations of some of the animals whose 

 haunts I wish to locate in a general way. 



Leopards : The province of Kwei-chow 

 in western China is the province in which 

 leopards are said to be more numerous. 

 This animal is named Piao by the natives, 

 but as it is sometimes confounded with the 

 name for the panther, Pao, the leopard is 

 also known as the Pao, or Pao-tzu. The 

 largest leopards are about the size of a 

 medium grown panther and are as ferocious 

 and active as the latter animal. Of all the 

 wild animals of China this one is a special 



