372 MAMMALIA. 



" Croucliing, ;uid using evciy possible precaution, I issued from 

 my shelter, carr3-ing my gun with the barrels depressed and my 

 finger on the second trigger. As soon as I was perceived the 

 Panther made a spring of ten feet towards me. I aimed at its 

 head ; but the rapidity with which it came was so great, and the 

 darkness so intense, that I missed, — my ball entering the ground, 

 and the fire from my piece singeing the hair on its neck. 



" The terrible brute now threw itself upon me, and bore me 

 to the ground in an instant. I fell underneath on my back, with 

 my shoulders caught in the bush that had served me as a place of 

 concealment. First my foe attempted to strangle me, and fixing 

 upon my neck, tore at it in indescribable rage. This was for- 

 tunately protected by the collar and thick hood of mj cloak. 



"With my left hand I endeavoured to defend myself and push 

 oil my assailant, while with the right I made desperate efforts to 

 gi-asp the hunting-knife that lay under me. The former it bit 

 through and through, notwithstanding the woollen sleeve that 

 covei'ed it ; it also gnawed my face horribly : one of the fangs of 

 the upper jaw tore my foreliead and went through my nose ; the 

 other fang entered at the corner of the left eye and broke my 

 cheek-bone. Incapalile of resisting with one hand, I abandoned 

 t)ie useless search for my knife, and with my two hands I con- 

 vulsively grasped ir,y assailant by the neck. It then seized me 

 across the face, and driving its foiiuidable teeth into the flesh, 

 smaslied the whole of my jaw. The noise thus caused sounded so 

 painfully that I thought my brains were being crushed out. My 

 face was in its mouth, from whence issued a burning, infected 

 breath that stifled me. Still I clung to the foe by the neck, 

 which was as large and hard as the trunk of a tree, and at length, 

 with the strength of despair, I was enabled to thrast away its 

 horrible head from mine. It then seized )ne bv the left arm, 

 and bit four times through the elbow. "Without the large 

 amount of clothing with which it was covered, it must have been 

 cruslied like a piece of glass. 



" All this time I was lying on my back on the extreme brink 

 of the ravine, my legs above and head downwards. 



"The Panther tried a second time to take me by the face; I 

 resisted ; but my strength was all but exhausted. Makino- a 

 movement to better my position, it clutched mj' head. Gathering 



