HORSE VERSUS CHEETAH. 203 



a second glance told me that it was a cheetah 

 (Gusparda jubata), so often stupidly called hunting- 

 leopard ; I say stupidly, for it is in no way related 

 to the spotted beauty that is such a pest to the 

 pastoral farmer and a terror to the ever-watchful 

 baboon. Here, however, was a chance to try the 

 fleetness of this well-known beast, in whose speed I 

 have no faith, if required to be sustained, although 

 I will acknowledge, and in this point I thoroughly 

 agree with my old friend, Mr. Blyth, once curator of 

 the Calcutta Museum, that for three or four bounds 

 its velocity exceeds that of any other quadruped. 



When first I saw the cheetah, he was stealing 

 away, as if desirous of escaping observation ; 

 but the moment I gave a "view halloa" and 

 dashed towards him, off he went with several 

 bounds, which, if continued, would soon have left 

 me nowhere ; but this was not to be. The animal 

 settled into a long lope, not unlike the gait of a wolf 

 or hyaena, but with this difference, that it did not as 

 rapidly cover the ground. 



My mare could at any time, after the first two 

 hundred yards were passed, have run up alongside 

 the quarry, but this I would not permit her to do, 

 being satisfied to make the pace only sufficiently hot 

 to pump the fugitive. In a quarter of a mile I had 

 succeeded, for the poor brute refused to go any 

 further, but sat down after the manner of a dog, and, 

 looking at me with an inquiring, intelligent gaze, 



