260 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



fortunately (though not for himself) recovered 

 consciousness and staggered away. The tiger, 

 reluctant to see another course of his dinner 

 escape, dropped the boy and hurried after the 

 native. It was found dead next day, and the 

 boy recovered slowly but surely from his 

 wounds. 



The leopard is another very dangerous beast. 

 The natives dread it everywhere, for it is less 

 cowardly than the tiger, more indifferent to the 

 presence of man, and also able to climb trees 

 and attack from above, which is a serious matter 

 in the jungle. Many Englishmen have been 

 mauled by leopards in both Africa and India. 

 Captain Stigand, N.A.R., was one of the victims 

 in Africa, and Major Barras (i5th Bombay 

 Infantry) had a bad encounter of the kind in 

 the Deccan. Mr. Van der Byl, one of those 

 sportsmen who have been at close grips with 

 the leopard and escaped, gave me some par- 

 ticulars of his adventure, which occurred in 

 Rhodesia. He owes his life, in fact, to a lucky 

 shot of his, which knocked out the leopard's 

 two long canine teeth at the moment of its 

 charge. He had wounded it with his Mann- 

 licher, and he followed it up, both of them 

 running their hardest. When the animal had 

 gone about three hundred yards, it dis- 

 appeared from sight, and, as he afterwards 

 concluded, must have sat down and waited 



