160 LEOPABD ON EIVER BANK 



the bank of the river, right in the middle of a crowded 

 boating population. An old man foolishly attacked it 

 with an axe, upon which it sprang on him and severely 

 lacerated his head, neck, and shoulders with its claws 

 and teeth, but was quickly despatched before doing any 

 further damao-e. The old man died from the effects of 

 his wounds a few days after. Such a thing had never 

 been heard of before. 



I had just finished breakfast at the time, and, seeing 

 a crowd, walked down to see what the matter was, 

 accompanied by one of the Customs staff. On seeing 

 me someone in the crowd declared that the beast had 

 escaped from my boat, whereupon I was roundly abused 

 by the wife of the wounded man, and in less time than 

 it takes to write this I was accused of having brought 

 down in my boat elephants, lions, tigers, and all sorts 

 of impossible animals. The mob quickly got so 

 threatening that we thought it advisable to retire with 

 as much speed as was consistent with dignity. 



In December I left in my boat for Hankow, more 

 for a change than anything else, for neither Mr. 

 Kricheldorff nor myself had fully recovered from the 

 hardships of our journey to Ta-tsien-lu, and I thought 

 that the journey would do us both good. We went 

 down leisurely, and arrived at Hankow on the 29th. 

 Here I remained till February 4, and having previously 



