160 LEOPARD ON RIVER BANK 
the bank of the.river, right in the middle of a crowded 
boating population. An old man foolishly attacked it 
with an axe, upon which it sprang on him and severely 
lacerated his head, neck, and shoulders with its claws 
and teeth, but was quickly despatched before doing any 
further damage. The old man died from the effects of 
his wounds a few days after. Such a thing had never 
been heard of before. 
I had just finished breakfast at the time, and, seeing 
a crowd, walked down to see what the matter was, 
accompanied by one of the Customs staff. On seeing 
me someone in the crowd declared that the beast had 
escaped from my boat, whereupon I was roundly abused 
by the wife of the wounded man, and in less time than 
it takes to write this I was accused of having brought 
down in my boat elephants, lions, tigers, and all sorts 
of impossible animals. The mob quickly got so 
threatening that we thought it advisable to retire with 
as much speed as was consistent with dignity. 
In December I left in my boat for Hankow, more 
for a change than anything else, for neither Mr. 
Kricheldorff nor myself had fully recovered from the 
hardships of our journey to Ta-tsien-lu, and I thought 
that the journey would do us both good. We went 
down leisurely, and arrived at Hankow on the 29th. 
Here I remained till February 4, and having previously 
