ciiAr. VI. LEOPARDS. 303 



I While returning, I naturally asked many questions of 

 ""f natives about this animal, which I had sometimes 

 ard of, but had never before seen or formed any par- 

 uicular idea of. They told me that it was very rare ; 

 that in this part of the country it was principally found 

 m the rocky gorges m the Bombo Mountains, among the 

 dense jungle of which it lay concealed, though it was 

 occasionally, as in the present instance, seen huntmg in 

 pairs through the plains ; that it lived chiefly on the 

 smaller antelopes, and was harmless and cowardly to a 

 degree. As an instance of its great resemblance to a 

 lioness, one of them related a story of a hunter who met 

 his death by chasing one of the latter animals, under the 

 impression that it was an ngulule. 



On the other occasion on which I came across them I 

 found the fresh spoor of a pair soon after starting out 

 hunting early one morning, and, as the rain had been 

 heavy on the previous night, and the tracks would there- 

 fore be distinct, I determined to follow them, despite the 

 entreaties of my gun-bearer, the same man who had been 

 with me on the former occasion, and who stoutly main- 

 tained, though of course he knew better, that it was the 

 spoor of two young lions. 



I tracked them for some hours without intermission, 

 and had an interesting study of their mode of stalking 

 and their movements while hmiting before I reached the 

 greater part of the carcase of an impalla which they had 

 killed, upon seeing which I hesitated as to whether I 

 should go on, or wait by it for their return ; but as I 

 hoped to find them fast asleep in some thicket close by, 

 gorged with meat, and overcome with the heat of an 



