ESCAPE OF THE PANTHER. 341 



panther stopped ; but he had been so thoroughly alarmed that he forsook 

 both the covers and the rocks, passed our most distant markers, and made 

 his way towards an extensive tract of scrub -jungle, where pursuit was 

 useless. The day was hot and we were all half dead with thirst, whilst 

 there was no water nearer than Chuttra, so we were obliged to content our- 

 selves with the thought that we had done all that we could to make an end 

 of him, and to return to the village. The slain boar proved a source of 

 some consolation to the men. I should have Hked to have kept his skin 

 for a saddle, but one of the old Torreas represented in such touching terms 

 that the crackling was the tonne louche, that, rather than lessen their enjoy- 

 ment, I let them take him away entire. I fancy, however, that they must 

 have found the integument of this old stager offer something more than a 

 " coy resistance." 



This, happily, was the only occasion but one on which I have had men 

 injured whilst shooting. The other was a similar case, two Morlajdtes 

 having been bitten and clawed, though not very severely, by a large male 

 panther which we were badgering in his stronghold, and which I shot whilst 

 coming at myseK. The Torrea whom I sent into Mysore was sufficiently 

 recovered to rsturn to his village in ten days, and I think he did not regret 

 the occurrence on the whole, as I always gave him the much-valued rupee 

 when we met afterwards. The scratches of the other three men were 

 trifling. I never bagged this panther. He appeared to take offence at 

 our usage of him, and though he returned now and again he never stayed 

 long enough to admit of our organising a second hunt for him. I killed 

 a female panther, however, and captured her two cubs, very probably his 

 wife and offspring, eight days after our adventure with the old gentleman 

 himself. I had returned from a morning inspection of a channel when 

 news came that a panther, smaller than the last, and accompanied by cubs, 

 was in the cover ; also that the Chuttra headmen were collecting such of 

 their followers as they could, in view to my returning with the messengers. 

 I swallowed a hasty breakfast and drove to the place. Only about twenty 

 men had been collected. I had very little faith in the efforts of so small a 

 party in so extensive a thicket, though, as very often happens, this hastHy- 

 improvised drive was more successful than our more elaborate arrangements 

 had been. 



By the advice of the men, and accompanied by one of them, I took 

 up my post inside the large cover on the edge of a narrow glade or path 

 that ran through it, and at a particular spot at which they assured me the 

 panther would cross. Hunters with thorough local knowledge can fre- 

 quently tell to within a yard where beasts will i;^«<ss, even in what appears 



