2o8 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



were assembled round one of the topes, which I 

 have mentioned as having rather thick undergrowth, 

 and into this the beaters were sent. After a great 

 deal of hullabalooing, several pigs broke, and G., C., 

 B. and D. took after them. We were 011 the other 

 side of it, and did not know they had started until 

 it was too late to join them. The drivers now 

 declared that there were no more beasts in the tope, 

 and we were thinking of shifting our ground, when 

 A. espied something creeping along a hollow ditch, 

 overgrown partially by wild indigo. " What is that ! " 

 he asked, and I, turning in the direction, also saw 

 something move. 



"It is not a pig. I suspect it is a wild cat. Let 

 us drive it, and have a chase," he said. No sooner 

 said than done. We galloped among the bushes 

 where the animal was last seen, and, to our amaze- 

 ment, not a cat, but a splendid leopard bounded out 

 in our front, not pleased at our intrusion, as the 

 whisking of its tail proved. The superior speed of 

 my horse gave me the advantage, and I was soon 

 alongside, and delivered my spear through its body, 

 but as I turned sharply to the left, the brute gave a 

 spring and clawed my gray, who in return gave it a 

 vigorous kick in the head and rolled it over. A. 

 came promptly up and the brute made at him ; his 

 horse shied, but the rider turned the game by a 

 dexterous thrust in the face. It then charged F., 

 who missed it as it sprang on the horse, which it 

 seized by the throat, whilst its fore legs were clasped 

 round its neck ; so the horse came down a frightful 

 cropper, sending F. flying. E. and I. sent our spears 

 through the beast. This caused the leopard to release 



