HOW CURIOSITIES ARE CAPTURED. 33 



two camels, the weight of the young monster being too much for a single beast of 

 burden. 



Many fine hunk is h.i\v ^ O ne to India, where many of the fiercest animals abound 

 (and which is the home of the royal Bengal tiger, the most fearful of all creatures), 

 not to mention Ceylon, Farther India and many other portions of the earth. 



Africa, however, is the great source of supply, and many a hundred thousand 

 dollars of capital has gone to the Dark Continent, that it might bring you curi- 

 osities that are interesting, entertaining and instructive. There are now agencies at 

 Port Natal, Cape Town, on the gold Coast, at Cairo and other points, and the pages 

 of this book give the history of the most famous expedition ever sent into Southern 

 and Central Africa, India, or indeed into any part of the world. The story will be 

 told further on. 



One simple rule governs the hunters who are in quest of wild animals. You can 

 understand that it is impossible in most cases to capture the full grown tiger, leop- 

 ard, giraffe, ostrich, lion, and indeed any large quadruped except, perhaps, the 

 elephant, which can be readily brought under subjection. Most of these beasts, in 

 their savage state, will fight to the death before yielding. At any rate, the difficulty 

 of securing them shuts out most attempts to do so. 



The rule of the hunters, therefore, is to seek the place where the young are 

 receiving the attention of the mother, and then, lying in wait, shoot her, and quite 

 often the father, too, when he is in the neighborhood. 



The parents being disposed of, the helpless offspring are taken from their quar- 

 ters, carefully looked after, and sent to the sea coast, where they are kept until strong 

 enough to be shipped across the sea to England and thence to this country. 



Now, you will see that Bob Marshall, when he shot the two leopards, to use a 

 common expression, builded better than he knew. Beyond a doubt, they were the 

 parents of the kittens of which his cousin spoke, and the way was thereby opened 

 to carry off the valuable young. 



That was what the two youths and their companions were in Africa for, and 

 they lost no time in following instructions. Dick Brownell led the way through 

 the tall grass to an immense rock, at the base of which was a cavity partly filled 

 with dead vegetation, arranged with some system by the mother of the leopards. 



Enough light remained for the cousins to observe two forms, resembling chunky 

 dogs, nosing around in the grass, emitting strange mewing sounds, as they vainly 

 groped for their mother. They were hungry and could not understand why their 

 usual supper was denied them. 



" That's a piece of good luck," said Bob, stooping down and griping one of the 

 kittens by the loose skin at the back of the neck, which, as you know, is the spot 

 where the Fclis species seizes their young when they wish to carry them any distance. 



Dick Brownell did the same with the other kitten, which was a solid fellow 

 indc :d. The baby leopards were quick to learn .that it was not their mother that 

 Was handling them, and they began fighting with a vigor which gave a vivid idea 

 of what they would be able to do a few months later. 



