258 ROMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
probable that if I did not prevail on him to stop before he came up 
to me he might have a pleasant few minutes’ amusement with my 
legs dangling down to within a few feet of the ground, 
The first shout of the beaters had scarcely echoed up the hill 
when my friend on the tree above me remarking, ‘There goes the 
tiger,” pointed upward, and following the direction of his finger I 
saw a very fine panther one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards 
off trotting with long and rapid. strides up the hill to my right. 
Sitting as I was astride a large branch it was impossible for me to 
turn round sufficiently, get my rifle to my shoulder, and bring it to 
bear on an object above and well to my right, Nevertheless IJ fired 
at him from my cramped position, and I believe I hit him, as he 
turned round and snapped at his hind quarters, and some paltyas 
in trees who saw him pass close declared they. saw blood on his 
flanks. He tried to pass over the hill, but was turned by paltyas, 
and he proceeded to lie up in some rocks under trees directly below 
the high cliff crowning the hill. [ hurried up the hill to head him, 
and getting the beat so arranged as to drive h.m towards me, I 
knelt on the ground, rifle in hand, directly in his road to cross over 
the hill. 
I had not been long in position when I saw his beautiful yellow 
skin shine in the bright sunlight as he descended a dip in the path 
under the cliff, coming straight towards me. When he rose out 
of the dip, to my surprise, he suddenly pulled up .and looked 
dead in our direction. I whispered to the old fellow behind me, 
holding my spare rifle, that it must have been the confounded dark 
blanket over his head that the panther had seen. He declared the 
blanket was not to blame, but the men above us on the rocks, and 
looking up I perceived, for the first time, some half-dozen beaters 
shewing well down to their waists above the high rocks over us, 
The panther then lying down broadside on in the open with his 
tongue hanging out, kept his head turied round in our direction 
showing that he distinctly saw us in spite of the bright glare of 
the sun. I was nearly tempted to fire at him as he was not more 
than 80 yards off, but a shot at a sitting animal is always a difficult 
one, and I dreaded putting him back on the beaters, some of whom 
he would have been sure to maul, if not kill. As the drive came on 
he quietly slipped down the hill and I went after him, 
When thus following him some men in ateak-tree, hailing me, told 
me they had seen him sneak into some cactus bushes and long grass 
