THE LEOPARD AND THE CHEETAH 235 



On the whole, the leopard is the fiercest and pluckiest of 

 African game. It charges as freely as the lion, and is so 

 quick and agile, and offers so small a mark, that it is harder 

 to hit. A bullet stops it more easily, however, and in 

 strength and size it is so inferior to a lion that its assault is 

 much less likely to be fatal. Kermit was fiercely charged 

 by an unwounded leopard, which, after he had crippled and 

 mortally wounded it, caught and mauled a native. Yet it 

 weighed less than seventy pounds. The biggest males we 

 got weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds. Carl 

 Akeley was bitten and clawed by a leopard he had wounded; 

 he killed it with his naked hands, partly by choking, partly 

 by crushing its breast with his knees — an extraordinary 

 feat. Many hunters have been wounded, and a few have 

 been killed, by leopards. It is incomparably fiercer, pluck- 

 ier, and more dangerous to man than the cougar, although 

 the latter in some of its forms is larger and has longer teeth 

 and claws. Yet the leopard does not attack and master more 

 formidable game than the cougar. A good pack of hounds 

 will kill it as readily as they will kill a cougar. Paul Rainey, 

 in the course of his lion hunting, killed several leopards. 

 Four of these, all full grown, the pack finished without as- 

 sistance. They could always kill a leopard if they got it 

 in open ground; but among dense bushes or rocks it was 

 generally able to stand them off, as they could only get 

 at it in front. Two or three big fighting dogs will kill a 

 leopard without especial difficulty. 



