58 PANTHERS. 



sary to crane round the edge of this, in order to see the 

 brute. I could not shoot from the left shoulder with any 

 certainty, nor were the circumstances favourable for experi- 

 ments, so I determined to attack from another point. 

 Going round to the back of the cairn, I entered a branch 

 of the cave on my hands and knees, and, creeping forward, 

 came upon him from the rear. The light was very 

 bad, but he was within a yard of me, so, placing the 

 muzzle of the rifle within a few inches of the root of 

 his tail, I fired with the intention of raking him from 

 end to end. 



He roared and rushed out of the cave, and I retreated 

 backwards on all fours nearly stifled with smoke and filth, 

 the cave being evidently a favourite retreat of all kinds of 

 janwars. Emerging from the cave, I reloaded, and climbed 

 up a rock near its mouth, whence I saw the brute crouch- 

 ing under a bush about fifteen yards off. I fired and he 

 came at me like a flash of lightning. He was almost 

 touching the muzzle when the left barrel was loosed ; his 

 impetus carried him on, and striking the muzzle he sent 

 me flying head over heels into a seega kye (wait-a-bit 

 thorn) bush.* The natives preferring to witness the scene 

 from a distance, it gave me much trouble to get out of 

 this unassisted ; but the hook-shaped thorns were at length 

 negotiated, and I emerged like a hedgehog covered with 

 spines. The panther had been marked into an adjacent 

 fissure, and out he came at me again as fresh as paint, but 

 this time a shot between the eyes rolled him over. Up he 

 got again and struggled towards me, but I now tackled 

 him with a hog spear and polished him off. The ricochet 

 shot had only inflicted a flesh wound in the foot. The 

 "raking" shot a hollow pointed bullet propelled by 

 * Acacia or mimosa. 



