THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



meat on the large limb of a tree not too far from the 

 ground. The trap is placed between the trunk of the tree 

 and the meat, concealed as much as possible under leaves, 

 and fastened to a chain long enough to reach the ground 

 with the other end, where it should be fastened to a log, 

 but it must be well hidden, for otherwise the cunning cat 

 would be suspicious and not go into the trap at all. 



At one time on the Naivasha plateau, when marching 

 with my caravan from the western slopes of the Aberdare 

 Mountains toward the Kijabe Railroad station, I saw a 

 leopard at a distance of some seven hundred yards. The 

 beautiful beast was walking slowly, almost parallel to us. 

 On account of the high grass I could only see his back, and 

 occasionally caught a glimpse of his head and the tip of his 

 long tail. As there was no cover behind which I could 

 stalk, I quickly screwed the Maxim gun silencer on to the 

 6-millimeter Mannlicher, which was my farthest shooting 

 weapon. In the meantime the caravan had thrown them- 

 selves flat on the ground, so as not to attract the slightest 

 attention from the leopard, which up to this time had not 

 noticed us at all. As I had underestimated the distance 

 in the beginning, I set the telescope sight of the rifle up to 

 four hundred yards, and fired. 



The leopard, not hearing the crack of the gun, stopped 

 and looked suspiciously down into the grass as the bullet 

 hit the ground in front of him. It was then clear to me 

 that the bullet must have hit the soil right under the ani- 

 mal's neck, and that I had been aiming too low. Just as 

 the leopard resumed his slow walk, the second bullet cut 

 one of his front legs near the paw. Still hearing no noise, 

 but feeling the sudden pain of the wound, the leopard evi- 



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