SPORT IN MOZAMBIQUE 



was the largest I killed, measuring about seven and 

 a half feet in' length. 1 



Well satisfied at this luck, I return with the animal, 

 carried by two negroes who are as pleased as myself 

 at the thought of the distribution of liquor which 

 always follows big captures, My wife, who wanted to 

 assist in this affair, was preparing to skin the beast, 

 and I am making ready to help her, when I recollect 

 that there is another trap set in the path, near a 

 patch of cotton, which has not yet been visited. There 

 may be an unexpected chance of finding something 

 in it, and I think it advisable to exchange my rifle 

 for my wife's 20-bore, in order to shoot any partridge 

 I may come across. 



In order to save myself the fatigue of traversing 

 the dew-soaked cotton-plants, I follow a path which 

 skirts the plantation. I am close to the trap when I 

 see the negro, whose business it is to visit the traps 

 each morning, who has made a short cut, proceeding 

 in advance of me. I watch him arrive within a score 

 of yards of the trap. I hear nothing, and replace 

 my gun on my shoulder. Suddenly a ferocious 

 growling resounds ; I see the negro turn round and 

 flee at top speed and a magnificent leopard bounding 

 behind him. The cotton-crop, on account of being 

 too young, does not hold the trap, which the leopard 

 is dragging behind it with surprising ease : the negro 

 is losing ground and will be caught. At all hazard I 



1 2 metres, 32 centimetres. 



(82) 



