THE LEOPARD 191 



opinion, greater in proportion than that of the 

 lion. In fact, it is amazing that so slightly buUt 

 a creature can perform such prodigies of strength. 

 Instances are not few of their having scaled at a 

 bound stockades 10 and 12 feet high, and retired 

 by the same way with a 40-lb. goat in their 

 mouths. As a man-eater, which, truth to tell, 

 the leopard but rarely becomes, he has an un- 

 pleasant and most effective habit of lying in wait 

 over a native path extended along some massive, 

 leafy tree-trimk, and dropping suddenly from 

 above upon his unfortunate victim. His teeth in 

 the poor wretch's throat choke back the cry of 

 alarm with a pressure which is never relaxed until 

 death ensues, and it has thus not seldom hap- 

 pened that, owing to attacks by leopards, persons 

 and animals have disappeared with an uncanny, 

 noiseless suddenness which has done much to 

 increase the universal dread and detestation in 

 which these animals are held by the natives. 



I shall close this description with a little story 

 which, although it cannot be regarded as adding 

 much to our knowledge of the life-history or 

 habits of leopards, would never have been related 

 but for the untimely exploit of one of them. It 

 has, moreover, the unusual merit of being in all 

 respects, with the exception of the names of its 

 chief actors, absolutely true. 



One tranquil Sabbath afternoon many years 

 ago the small Nyasaland gunboat Halcyon was 

 lazily rising and falling at her moorings to the 

 glassy swell of the great African lake which has 

 given its name to that prosperous British colony. 



