502 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 1, 190J. 
DEAD. 
Neither the dog nor boy was much mauled, 
and their wounds were soon healed ; they both 
doubtless owe their life to the badly wounded trnd 
weak condition of the leopard. He proved a full- 
grown male, measuring 6 ft. 10 in. in lenf;th aud 
2 ft. 7 in. in height, weighing 140 lb. 
The following night I set a spring-gun again 
and shot a hyena, standing 2 ft. 10 in. at the 
ehoulder and weighing 150 lb. Leopards are said 
not to be scavengers, but this I proved not to be 
the case, for I have known them, take a bait of 
dead poisoned fowl, and upon this occasion I set 
a spring-gun over the carcass of the leopard we 
had secured, and another one came to have a 
feed off his probable brother and was shot dead. 
Although the gun was set for hyenas, we secured 
another fine specimen of a leopard. 1 have had 
VAKIED EXPERIENCE OF THE CEYLON AND 
AFRICAN LEOPARD 
and I am satisfied that the African one is by far the 
most daring of the two, not hesitating to enter a 
native hut, but through the roof, lifting its occu- 
pant in thedead of night or lifting a watchman from 
the verandph of a house, eveu after being tired at. 
AN AFTER-DINNER ADVENTURE. 
One evening about seven o'clock, just as my 
cook had dished the dinner in the back verandah 
leaving no one in the kitchen, my two dogs lying 
near the fire, raised a fearful howling. Thinking 
it nii^iit be a leopard, and as it was bright 
moonifght I seized my rifle and ran out just in 
time to see a leopard carrying away one of my 
dogs. As he was getting up the bank, I fired 
and hit him, for he dropped the dog and made off 
with tremendous bounds before I had time to 
fire another shot. Upon examining the spoor we 
found blood tracks for some 500 yards up through 
the garden, but owing to the want of a good 
lantern, and knowing the danger of following a 
wounded leopard at night (even with a good moon) 
we returned to attend to the mauled dog who 
was found crouching by the dining room fire, 
evidently suffering from a severe friglit if nothing 
more, for lie would not even answer to his name 
Chekumba (by the way a name given to him by 
myself as he was captured and taken prisoner at 
a war against a slave-raiding chief of that name). 
Upon examination of the wounds we found two 
holes, one on each side of the neck, and the skin 
broken on the top of the head, evidently made 
by the brute's canine teeth. The wounds, how- 
ever, did not appear to be serious. Hot water 
was freely used to wash and cleanse the wounds 
well, after Avhich strong carbolic oil and wadding 
was pushed well home in the sores, and Chekumba 
sent to bed with a bowl of milk beside him. 
My other dog had evidently a narrow escape too, 
for he was also lying by the kitchen fire at the 
time the leopard entered, but how he escaped a 
mauling no one knows ; his voice was however 
audible enough howling all the way down to the 
niggers' huts where it seemed impossible to 
restore him to his natural peace of mind, for he 
continued barking all night, and never came near 
the house till daybreak, when he was discovered 
sneaking into my bed-room with his tail well bC" 
tween his legs. Poor Chekumba next morning 
began to stagger about with his head down, and at 
7 a.m. succumbed to the fatal poison, with a reck 
swollen to twice the size of his natural one. 
ON THE TRACK. 
Soon after this we (a party of three), my native 
Vveiseer, a, shikari and myself, set out to track 
the leopard. From the trail left the beast seemed 
to be bady v/onndcil, for he was evidenly dragging 
his tail and hind quarters on the ground, 
possibly injured on the spine. Although the 
African native is not such a good tracker 
as the Indian shikari, when a white man 
is behind him with a loaded gun, his natural 
apathy disappears and the savage can and 
does track well, notwithstanding his natural 
inclination to cave in, because he liriiily believes 
that masters gun has got the proper medi- 
cine to 1 iy the beast hnrs dc combat within 
110 yards of the jjlace where he was shot at. 
Up to about 11 o'clock, we followed those 
wearisome f-jotsteps through grass, scrub, and 
village gardens until the virgin forest was entered 
and furtiier tracking seemed impossible, and we 
were just about to return home, wearied and 
disappointed. After some cold fowl and biscuits 
atid a drink of clear cold icy-water, from the 
mountain plateau stream, a desperate barking of 
baboons was heard on some large trees, just be- 
hind us, some 300 yards up the valley. 
BABOONS, 
As the barking of the baboons continued with- 
out intermission for ahout 20 minutes, I asked 
my men what it all meant, and was told the 
leopard was the cause of all the row ; and that 
those fierce members of the monkey tribe always 
bark when a leopard is in sight, and even go 
the length of killing their bitter enemy by attack- 
ing him in large numbers. This latter part of the 
yarn, I didn'tj believe; bat the former, I proved 
heyond a doubt. Oft" we ft'ent to where the noise 
proceeded from, and found a herd of baboons 
showing their teeth and making awful faces, 
bobbing up and down, evidently in a most fear- 
ful rage. To stop their row, I fired at the biggest 
fellow 1 could see, and brought liim down, but 
off he went as hard as he could scamper, and 
was out of sight in a minute. I fired at a second 
and broke his arm ; off he went with his broken 
limb, dangling in the air, with any quantity of 
blood spurting down on the leaves of the lower 
jungle trees. This shooting had the desired effect, 
and the whole herd made off, leaving us to look 
after the big fellow who tumbled down. We 
found him sitting under a huge tree, apparently 
in the last stage of life, indiffeient to all around. 
In fact, one man ran up to lay hold, but only to 
find there was still life, and asked me to slioot; 
I didnt care to do so, if the animal was 
really dead : but I introduced my gun barrel to 
his side. Before I could .vithdraw the weapon, he 
had it in his teeth and was gripping it like a 
vice. I pulled the trigger and finished off the 
monster. To show the powerful canine teeth 
that a baboon carries, my gun barrel bears the 
marks (large dents) to this day. After shooting 
the baboon the second time, and he released my 
gun, I stood away a little distance and was 
thunder-struck to see the beast take the blood 
from his bleeding side with his hand, look at it, 
and then at me, as much as to say, "You have 
murdered me," and then expired. I vowed in myown 
mind, that I would never slioot another baboon, 
and I have not done so to this day, although 
I have had many opportunities since. Upon 
resuming our search for the leopard, I found 
close by a small cave, where he had evidently 
lain all night, for there were splotches of 
blood on the dry ground, but beyond the cave, no 
trace could be seen. The baboons again began to 
bark some distance np the hill and we mad^ 
