CHAPTER XXIV. 



SPORT WITH PANTHERS AND LEOPARDS. 



MY FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THE PANTHER — THE SHRAVANA BALAGOLA IMAGE — A NOC- 

 TURNAL VISITOR — A LARGE PANTHER AT MUDDOOR — UNSUCCESSFUL HUNTS AFTER 

 HIM — BAG HIM AT LAST — TWO PANTHERS NEAR RAMANHULLY — THEIR STRONGHOLD 

 — DRIVE THEM — IN A BUSH WITH THE PANTHERS — SHOOT ONE — HINTS ABOUT POST- 

 ING MARKERS — THE TORREAS OF MYSORE — NEWS OF A LARGE PANTHER — HIS HAUNTS 

 — JAFFER's diplomacy — HUNT THE PANTHER — AN OBTRUSIVE BOAR — THE PANTHER 

 TURNS RUSTY — WOUNDS A BEATER — ESCAPES TO ANOTHER STRONGHOLD — WE ATTACK. 

 HIM THEREIN — THREE MORE MEN CLAWED — THE PANTHER ESCAPES — SHOOT A 

 FEMALE PANTHER AND CAPTURE HER CUBS — INTRACTABILITY OF PANTHER-CUBS — A 

 PIG-HUNT — A NIGHT-RAID INTO CAMP BY A PANTHER — SHE CARRIES OFF OLD ROSIE 

 — PROMPT PURSUIT — ROSIE'S ESCAPE — SHOOT THE PANTHER. 



THE panther was the first wild animal of the dangerous order that I met 

 with after my arrival in India. I had been but a few months in. the 

 country when I accompanied a friend to a place called Shravana Balagola, 

 forty miles N.N.W. from Seringapatam, where he was desirous of photo- 

 graphing some ancient monuments of the almost extinct (as to Mysore) 

 sect of Jains. Shravana Balagola is a small town of about one hundred 

 and fifty houses, and is situated, together with a very fine tank or reservoir 

 about four hundred feet square and forty deep, between two remarkable 

 hills, each formed of a mass of granite covered more or less with enormous 

 boulders that have been riven and piled up in the most singular positions 

 by some violent convulsion, and which form large caves and dens that 

 shelter panthers and leopards, to the damage of the neighbouring flocks. 

 These hills are characteristic specimens of the piles of rock that abound 

 in the Mysore territory. Upon one of the hiUs there is a huge image of a 

 naked human figure in granite. It is upwards of sixty feet high, and about 

 twenty-five feet across the shoulders. From the thighs upwards it is in 

 full relief; downwards it is attached to the rock behind. It is evident 



