Pelts 



two leopards ? One could swear the one in the 

 grass patch is still there. He could not have left, 

 and yet where does this other one come from ? 

 Now the latter advances, gliding over the ground ; 

 stops, turns to the right, and disappears into some 

 bushes. We sit as silent as a rock, and watch the 

 grass patch in front since the second leopard is 

 now behind us. Half an hour passes, and we are 

 cramped and stiff with silent watching. 



A movement on the right. There is the leopard, 

 about 60 yards off now, and advancing. Fifty, 

 forty, thirty. He crouches flat on his stomach 

 and gathers himself for the last rush. Suddenly — ■ 

 woof. He is about, and in a few beautiful undu- 

 lating bounds like a streak is in the jungle. Did 

 he see us really, or has he been playing with us 

 for the last two or three hours ? One has often 

 wondered. 



It is monotonous work, this sitting over goats 

 for panther. Interesting and exciting for the 

 tyro, I will admit, and most useful, since machan 

 work, when one is new to the jungle and jungle 

 conditions and life, must prove an aid in 

 training the eye to notice jungle objects, and 

 absorb and take in without knowing why the 

 relative colouring and distances and shades and 

 play of light which are all so new and difficult 

 to acquire by the town-bred eye. 



But after the first few years, and when one 

 has assimilated all the pleasure that ' sitting up ' 



271 



