PANTHER SHOOTING 



on the nullah bank, and waited, having previously 

 instructed the men to beat the nullah and the 

 adjacent jungle up to my post. Nothing appeared, 

 but as one of the men declared that he had seen the 

 panther in the drive in which event it must have 

 gone back I told them to beat back again, while I 

 hurried off and stood on the cart-track where it 

 passed through the ravine at the place where the 

 dog had been seized. Again no panther appeared, 

 but my dog was found. Poor thing ! She was in a 

 terrible state, with very deep fang-wounds in her 

 throat, and I made a man carry her to camp. I 

 had her wounds syringed frequently with a weak 

 solution of carbolic acid, and, in spite of her very 

 severe injuries and the resultant swelling, she even- 

 tually quite recovered. 



I once shot a panther when it was so dark that 

 I could not see the sights of my rifle. I had been 

 sitting on the ground watching a kid which was 

 picketed in front of me in a likely place, but it had 

 grown dusk, and I was about to give it up and 

 return to camp, when, from the jungle on my left 

 front, out bounded a panther which seized the kid, 

 the long tail of the robber standing straight up 

 in the air. Being unable to see my sights, I aimed 

 low and fired, and very fortunately broke the spine 

 of the marauder, whereupon I finished her off. She 

 proved to be a very handsome, though small female. 



As an illustration of the importance of using a 

 rifle which fits one really well, I will relate an 

 unsuccessful shot which I once made when it was 

 pitch dark. 



N , 77 



