576 Great and Small Game of Africa 



leopard can be heard from some cave far up on the mountains, the sound 

 carrying to a great distance. 



The sportsman who stays long in Somaliland will assuredly have some 

 very interesting adventures with the leopards which spring into camp from 

 time to time, and for this reason it is advisable to keep a loaded rifle in the 

 tent ; since although the animal, after seizing a goat, will generally spring 

 off with it and get clear away, occasions may arise when the rifle could be 

 used with effect. 



The attacks have been made in a variety of ways. In one instance 

 the leopard sprang into camp from the branches of a large tree overhanging 

 the spot where the goat was tethered ; on other occasions the assault has 

 been made from the bed of a small ravine running up to within a short 

 distance. The impudence of this animal's attack is carried further still, 

 and goats have been killed when tethered within a circle of sleeping men 

 close to a camp fire ; or, when the goat has been tethered near the tent, the 

 outer fly has been used by the leopard to shelter its advance. A dog would 

 be equally liable to its attack. 



Leopards, when only wounded, if they can see their enemy, nearly 

 always charge, and do so in the most direct manner. They lie close, and 

 the small mark they present and the suddenness of their attack make it 

 difficult to stop them except with a charge of slugs. Leopards are so 

 stealthy that they are seldom seen by day, and if seen they disappear almost 

 at once, their light step leaving nothing by which to follow. 



The best way to set about looking for these animals is to visit the tribes 

 settled at the foot of the mountains, and, having found a kraal, the neigh- 

 bourhood of which has been subject to their thefts, to build a shelter and tie 

 up a goat, preferably a half-grown bleating one. The leopard will come down 

 just before sunset, at the hour when the flocks are usually driven down from 

 the hills where they have been grazing, to be shut up in the kraals for the 

 night. When the leopard first rushes at the goat is not the time to fire. 



