With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



of prey appear at every moment or rustle ! But, wonderful 

 to relate, in spite of the continuous snarling we found it 

 impossible to locate the exact spot where the beast was 

 hiding-, and could get no further on account of the increasing 

 thickness of the reeds. So we decided to fire several shots 

 in the unexplored direction to kill the supposed lion. 



As appeared later the leopard was well hidden in a 

 hippopotamus-haunt. I cannot say how much ammunition 

 we had to expend. At last one of us must have managed to 

 give the leopard his death-wound, judging by the silence 

 which followed. Even then it was quite a long time before 

 we managed to make our way inch by inch to the dead 

 beast, when we saw a fine specimen of an old male leopard. 



In the Masai district hunting-leopards (Cynoelurus 

 guttatus) are very rare, and I have only seen two 

 individuals, and then learnt nothing about them. But the 

 " chui " of the Waswahili, the "' ol ugaru geri " of the 

 Masai, and the " mellila " of the Wanclorobo is to be 

 found in countless thousands nightly throughout the Xyika. 

 He will long survive the last lion. 



412 



