THE FORESTS OF KORDOFAN 123 



indistinctly I perceived something- that looked like a 

 rounded feline head a serval cat, I concluded and 

 promptly put in a charge of No. 2. The response was 

 startling. A great leopard, clawing and yowling, dropped 

 off the ledge overhead and looked like tumbling right on 

 top of us. I slipped in a bullet, but the beast had regained 

 foothold and crawled into a lower crevice where, in the 

 dark, we judged it prudent to leave him. Betimes next 

 morning, with Achmet carrying four spears in a leather 



ROCK-RABBITS (.Hyrax). On the Crags at Jebelein. 



quiver, we returned The rocks around the spot were 

 splashed with blood, but the leopard had retreated. 

 During the subsequent scramble, I saw another leopard 

 close by among the rocks, besides hearing two more the 

 place seemed alive with them. Overnight we had set two 

 big traps. One had been carried off, the strong rope- 

 lashing bitten through. Expecting the captive to be a 

 leopard, we trailed it upwards through strong thorn-bush 

 and towering boulders, almost to the topmost ridge, to 

 find ... a great gaunt striped hyena! Lynes (armed 

 only for small birds) encountered another a spotted 

 hyena quite unconscious of his presence within 50 yards. 



