218 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



he sent back to camp for his rifle, and when it came he 

 climbed a tree and endeavored to catch a glimpse of the 

 animal. He could see nothing, however; and finally fired 

 into the thicket rather at random. The answer was a fu- 

 rious growl, and the leopard charged out to the foot of the 

 tree, much hampered by the big thorn-branch. He put a 

 bullet into it, and back it went, only to come out and to 

 receive another bullet; and he killed it. It was an old male, 

 in good condition, weighing one hundred and twenty-six 

 pounds. The trap was not big enough to contain his whole 

 paw, and he had been caught firmly by one toe. The 

 thorn-bush acted as a drag, which prevented him from 

 going far, and yet always yielded somewhat when he pulled. 

 A bear thus caught would have chewed up the trap or else 

 pulled his foot loose, even at the cost of sacrificing the toe; 

 but the cats are more sensitive to pain. This leopard was 

 smaller than any full-grown male cougar I have ever killed, 

 and yet cougars often kill game rather heavier than leopards 

 usually venture upon; yet very few cougars indeed would 

 show anything like the pluck and ferocity shown by this 

 leopard, and characteristic of its kind. 



Kermit killed a waterbuck of a kind new to us, the 

 singsing. He also killed two porcupines and two baboons. 

 The porcupines are terrestrial animals, living in burrows 

 to which they keep during the daytime. They are much 

 heavier than, and in all their ways totally different from, 

 our sluggish tree porcupines. The baboons were numerous 

 around this camp, living both among the rocks and in the 

 tree tops. They are hideous creatures. They ravage 

 the crops and tear open new-born lambs to get at the milk 

 inside them; and where the natives are timid and unable 



