PANTHERS. 59 



2^ drachms of powder (an absurd charge) had only pene- 

 trated a few inches and mushroomed against the thigh 

 bone ; the third shot struck just behind the heart, the 

 fourth made a huge but shallow wound in the throat, 

 the fifth between the eyes carried away the lower part of 

 the brain pan, and would ultimately have killed him, 

 but the spear was quite necessary. The natives were 

 in great delight, as the beast was supposed to have killed 

 and eaten a boy, who was herding goats within iifty yards 

 of the spot two days previously. 



In the hot weather of 1881 my colonel and I were 

 returning to Secunderabad from a shooting trip, with a 

 view to finishing our leave at Ootacamund on the Neil- 

 gherry Hills, and were anxiously looking forward to the 

 cool breezes of the blue mountains. We were encamped 

 at Parvutgherry, at one time a very favourite spot for 

 tigers, and were on the point of starting one morning for 

 Kaepurty, when news arrived of a giira, so we sent on 

 our tents and baggage, retaining our horses and a pad 

 elephant. 



Beaters were obtained with some difficulty, as two men 

 had been killed there by a wounded tiger some years before 

 when a sahib had been shooting, and the fact was still 

 fresh in the minds of the villagers. However, we collected 

 about thirty, and started on our horses for the scene 

 of the kill, which was about two miles off. On the 

 way we met Kistiah, the head shikari, who reported 

 that the gara was the work of a bor butcha, and that 

 while examining it, the brute had appeared in an 

 evidently aggressive humour; whereupon he had fired 

 at and wounded it, and it had then disappeared into 

 the jungle. We got our rifles and approached the 

 kill, but the panther was nowhere to be seen, so, 



