The Leopard and Panther 171 



Among other peculiarities, says Forsyth, " their indif- 

 ference to water makes it extremely difficult to bring 

 them to book ; and indeed panthers are far more generally 

 met with by accident than secured by regular hunting. 

 When beating with elephants they are very rarely found, 

 considering their numbers ; but they must be very fre- 

 quently passed at a short distance unobserved, in this 

 kind of hunting. In 1862, I was looking for a tigress and 

 cubs near Khapa on the Lawa River in Betul. Their 

 tracks of a few days old led into a deep fissure in the 

 rocky banks of the river, above which I went, leaving the 

 elephant below, and threw in stones from the edge. Some 

 way up I saw a large panther steal out at the head and 

 sneak across the plain. He was out of shot, and I followed 

 on his tracks, which were clear enough for a few hundred 

 yards, till, at the crossing of a small rocky nala (gulch) 

 they disappeared. I could not make it out, and was 

 returning to the elephant, when I saw the driver making 

 signals. He had followed me up above, and had seen the 

 panther break back along the little nala which led into the 

 top of the ravine, and re-enter the latter. I then went 

 and placed myself so as to command the top of this ravine, 

 and sent people below to fling in stones ; and presently 

 the panther broke again in the same place, this time 

 galloping away openly across the plain. I missed with 

 both barrels of my rifle, but turned him over with a lucky 

 shot from a smooth-bore at more than two hundred yards. 

 I then went up to him on the elephant, and he made 

 feeble attempts to rise and come at me, but he was too far 

 gone to succeed. 



