

140 A LEOPARD SHOT. 



two years old at the time, and several young gentlemen 

 of my acquaintance are ten and eleven, it may fairly be 

 expected that when he arrives at their years, he may be 

 able to rival them in many of their practices. 



;'_.*,;.-..#;..*.-..:* 



Upon the return march from Bushman's River, I was 

 nearly having to pass the night in the open country, 

 without dinner, supper, or blankets. Finding the slow 

 pace of the waggons very disagreeable, and the road dull 



and uninteresting, I proposed to a Lieutenant G , of 



the party, to join me in a little detour in the surrounding 

 country. We left the road, and riding at right angles 

 to the line of its direction, continued our journey in a 

 supposed parallel direction to the road, after a dive into 

 the plain of about three miles. Now it so happened that 

 when we left, the road pointed nearly south, but shortly 

 after it turned to the east; thus, when we fancied that 

 we were moving in a parallel direction, we were in fact 

 going directly away from it. We rode on quietly, taking 

 a bread-and-cheese luncheon from our pockets, and seeing 

 only a few ourebis, that were, however, very wild, until 

 our attention was drawn to a moving object by the side 

 of a grassy watercourse. Watching this object carefully, 

 we soon saw it was a leopard, and rode towards it quietly, 

 so as not to cause an alarm, if possible, until we were near 

 it. When within about sixty yards, the animal saw us, and 

 crouched down in the grass. Having my favourite gun, 

 the left barrel of which threw a bullet with the precision 

 of a rifle, I fired at the leopard as I saw it crouching ; it 

 scarcely moved, and the bullet threw up no dust, con- 



