THE BIG GA.MK OF \\KSTHRN CHINA. 239 



under the ridge which forms the actual watershed, in this 

 neighbourhood, between the Yellow River and the Yangtze. 

 At nine o'clock one brilliant night, just as we were turning in 

 to bed, a man rushed out of his hut on the other side of the 

 valley, about a hundred yards distant, screaming at the top 

 of his voice, "Big leopard! Big leopard!" We tumbled 

 out as quickly as possible, but the moon was hardly up, and 

 not knowing which way the animal had gone, we were at a 

 loss: moreover he had had a few minutes start, which by 

 itself was sufficient to have given him time to slip back into 

 the mountains unobserved. It appeared that the man, who 

 kept his pig in a pen just outside the door, and not, as is 

 usually the case, in his room, heard the pig squealing in 

 a most heart-breaking manner, and had rushed out in time 

 to see the leopard putting his paw between the doors of the 

 pen; and such a surprising noise did he make, that the 

 animal had at once slunk off abashed. Though the man was 

 in reality nearly scared out of his wits, whether on his own 

 behalf or for the safety of his bacon, and rushing blindly to 

 us for aid, knowing our business, one cannot but admire his 

 pluck in thus coming out unarmed at night to the rescue of 

 the unfortunate pig: the leopard, though by no means brave, 

 is certainly an extremely savage animal, though, like the 

 shark and other ferocious beasts, he seems to be scared at 

 a little bluster, and will retreat rather than investigate a 

 novelty. The man was quite sure this marauder would come 

 back, however, so I agreed to take a rifle and lie in wait, for 

 it was a magnificent moonlight night, though bitterly cold. I 

 lay in ambush, guarding that wretched pig and awaiting 

 the proud moment when I should shoot a leopard, till 2 a.m., 

 by which time I was stiff with cold, for there was something 

 like 15 degrees of frost out in the open; but no leopard came. 

 So I turned back and went to bed fervently blessing the old 

 man, leopards in general, and pigsin particular. I havenotshot 

 a leopard yet. The common leopard extends over the greater 

 part of mountainous Asia, and though the Tibetans on the Kansu 

 border always have their sheepskin coats lined with a strip of 

 leopard put along the edge, the Chinese do not seem to 

 make use of the skins for clothing. Most of the leopard skins 

 sold in Western China, at Tow-chow, Chengtu, Tatsienlu, and 

 other big trading centres, come from Tibet, for the Chinese, 

 besides not being great hunters, are, as a rule, prodigiously 

 afraid of the animal, which in many parts is a continual 

 source of danger to the flocks. Parties of hunters occasion- 

 ally sally forth to exterminate a particularly bold depredator, 

 and at one place where we stayed in southern Kansu, two 

 men had recently come to grief trying to bring the local 

 leopard to book, for he had without warning sprung out on 



