Kermit Roosevelt and the leopard. 
From a photograph by W. N. McMillan. 
But the leopard did not wait to be driven. 
Without any warning, out he came and 
charged straight at Kermit, who stopped 
him when he was but six yards off with a 
bullet in the forepart of the body; the leop¬ 
ard turned, and as he galloped back Kermit 
hit him again, crippling him in the hips. 
The wounds were fatal, and they would 
have knocked the fight out of any animal 
less plucky and savage than the leopard; 
but not even in Africa is there a beast of 
more unflinching courage than this spotted 
cat. The beaters were much excited by the 
sight of the charge and the way in which it 
was stopped, and they pressed jubilantly 
forward, too heedlessly; one of them, who 
was on McMillan’s side of the thicket, went 
too near it, and out came the wounded 
leopard at him. It was badly crippled or 
it would have got the beater at once; as it 
was, it was slowly overtaking him as he ran 
through the tall grass, when McMillan, 
standing on an ant heap, shot it again. 
Yet, in spite of having this third bullet in it, 
it ran down the beater and seized him, wor¬ 
rying him with teeth and claws; but it was 
weak because of its wounds, and the power¬ 
ful savage wrenched himself free, while 
McMillan fired into the beast again; and 
back it went through the long grass into 
the thicket. There was a pause, and the 
wounded beater was removed to a place of 
safety, while a messenger was sent on to us 
to bring up the Boer dogs. But while they 
were waiting, the leopard, on its own initia¬ 
tive, brought matters to a crisis, for out it 
came again straight at Kermit, and this 
time it dropped dead to Kermit’s bullet. 
No animal could have shown a more fear¬ 
less and resolute temper. It was an old fe¬ 
male, but small, its weight being a little 
short of seventy pounds. The smallest fe¬ 
male cougar I ever killed was heavier than 
this, and one very big male cougar which 
I killed in Colorado was three times the 
weight. Yet I have never heard of any 
cougar which displayed anything like the 
spirit and ferocity of this little leopard, or 
which in any way approached it as a dan¬ 
gerous foe. It was sent back to camp in 
company with the wounded beater, after 
the wounds of the latter had been dressed, 
they were not serious, and he was speedily 
as well as ever. 
The rivers that bounded Juja Farm, not 
only the Athi, but the Nairobi and Rewero, 
