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Show MUM I IWii AllfeAli MMmB MLA-icd Leopard Hunting Alone in- Bechoanaland By PERCY SELOUS r "Wherever guns are made and soil and game it hunted for the sale of the sport of it the name, of Selous is familiar. The slows of his achievemrnts circle the globe and tens of thousands of lesser hunters honored to have hunted with him on occasion occa-sion or to have crossed his track or followed hit trail, A confirmed, nomad, a soldu-r of the chase by irresistible predilection, he Tins spent his life hunting., trapping and traveling, sometimes in hn Canadian woods, sometimes in the forests of the Andes, sometimes in the. passes of the Central Asian mountains, sometimes in the northern, ire, sometimes in the Africr'i jungle, and the story of his hunttnq experiences is a romance of fart and adventure. A member of this famous family of hunters is ac companying Theodore liooscvelt into the jungles of East Afriia. i - si marks, and quite fresh ones, too, where he had gone down to drink. This time the heavy rains had not washed all trace of spoor and scent away, and my dog was able to pick It up easily. Seeing that my carbine was all right and everything in its place to my hand, I followed "Snap" with some difficulty, for I did not want him to come to an untimely end, which might not be Improbable if I was unable to keep him back some-vhere some-vhere within bounds. Following the Leopard's Spoor. The spoor led along the bank for some distance close to the river, at which the leopard had occasionally halted, either to drink, or to watch for a stray fish; for these latter they will scoop out with the dexterity of a raccoon, as I myself once saw. In fact, they will eat almost anything that moves young birds, and for the matter of that old ones, too, when they can surprise them. A cat which has run wild at home is a fair example exam-ple of what the leopard is on a very much larger scale. The dog now came to a point at the foot of a tree, and after some search, for the foliage was very luxuriant, I could distinguish the leopard lying full length along a branch, his head between be-tween his paws, his eyes being Just discernible, and that was all. I could not get a good shot at him, tho angle wns too -acute to Are with safety at his head, and unless I got directly under him I could not see him at all, whilst the limb he was stretched out upon practically protected him at all vital points. Now and again he would just crane over a little and then draw before I could jump to one side, with a thump that would havo stunned him, one would imagine, even If the bullet had not smashed his jaw and gone out through the top of his head, bursting an eye In its course. He was as dead as a door nail, and a beautifully marked full grown young male, his teeth being perfect A6 I was only about a mile from camp, I got his skin off at once, and taking the skull vent back and dressed the skin there and then, beforo it should get covered with flyblows. I lost no time, however, in getting back to the spot where I had killed him. for it struck me there might be something more than I knew about in his having had his attention diverted from myself and the dog. So I ca6t about once more, still going along the river, letting 'Snap," who was well up to the work, do the hunting, whilst now and again I added a brilliant beetle to my collecting box. Passing two or three gullicB without making anything further out, I began to think that it must have been the whistle of an antelope that had attracted the leopard's notice. He showed, however, how-ever, the same intentness of gaze as I remembered in a jaguar I once killed under somewhat similar circumstances, circum-stances, and whose dying roar brought a second one on my track In loss than no time, giving me a stlfflsh scuffle. It is in cases such as these that the science sci-ence of woodcraft comes in handy, careful notice of surrounding signs and actions usually enabling one to come to a correct conclusion. I had been keeping fairly close to the river-bank, river-bank, for I held to ray theory that there was another leopard not far Ho soon commenced to got very excited, ex-cited, and I. could myself smell tho taint which always hangs around the lair of the carnlvora, be thpy birds or beasts. The spoor was easy enough to keep, as the path had been used many times, and the leopard, dragging her prey along, had beaten it down. I had my carbine ready for a rapid shot, for I felt sure we were coming close to, and had hard work to keep the dog from breaking away. Luckily the wind was in my favor, and all at once I came right in sight of the leopards, the old one and two cubs, almost as large as she was, basking in the sun in an open space In the glade. I don't think she saw me. as from where I stood I was completely hidden in dense foliage, but she stared hard in my direction, half rising to her feet, the tip of her tail twitching from side to side, or, more correctly speaking, beating the ground. It was as pretty a sight as I had ever seen, these beautiful beau-tiful cats, but I had not time for such thoughts. One of the cubs attempted to play with tho bobbing tall, and this seemed to irritate her, for she turned and gave the offending youngster young-ster a tap with her paw that sent him sprawjing. In doing so she gave me a fine broadside and I fired, dropping her at once, though she scrambled to her fore feet in an intsant. I could see that her hind parts were paralyzed; para-lyzed; she was shot through the spine; and as she turned to gnaw the wound I quickly got another cartridge In and hit her through the neck. Getting the Cubs. But this time the two cubs had recovered re-covered from their surprise, and as bend in the river, I was beginning to feet a bit winded, and was not sorry when further angry yelps and growling growl-ing showed that the cnb had again been brought to bay. Getting up as quickly as possible, I found that the dog had been having a rough time of it Ho was scored badly down tho Bide, and Instead of being a white terrier was a ghastly red one, though for the time being it did not appear to inconvenience him much. He was vigorously barking and Jumping around a lot of loose boulders, among which tho leopard had evidently taken refuge. I could not, however, Induce him to go in, and although I have had several good terriers for this kind of shooting none of them cared to go to ground after such game. I began to fear I should have to give him up, but got together a lot of the driest herbage I could find, and making a couple of squibs by extracting the powder from two cartridges. I went to work to try and mako him bolt, as his cover was not very large. Cutting Cut-ting as long a stick as I could And, I took a page out of my pocket diary and rolled the squibs in it. binding them to the thin end of the stick, which I bandaged thickly round with dry grass and leaves for a yard or more, and then pushed it in where the leopard had entered and Ignited it well all around, also heaping more dry stuff about the opening so as to make 'as much smother as possible. The smoke soon began to escape from the crevices, though the leopard did not appear to take any notice of it; but as soon as the fuses began to fizz and sputter, it was more than he could stand, and out he dashed, almost up 'Tfi , rgriirnrerx 0 M E years ago, I found myself IjWy stranded in Bech-; Bech-; uanaland, where I n,-f ' had followed a force TZZBEBBBtil of irregular cavalry, fSS&i raised by Col. Mc-j Mc-j thueu. for operat- Hj22yR Ing, should the exigency exi-gency arise, against the Trans aai Poers, whose filibustering raids across the border were getting worso and worse. To cut my story short, however, and get down to a fast series of single-handed single-handed leopard kills, after following the Dragoons up as far, as Mafekiug to no purpose, I returned to Klmber-ley Klmber-ley and the Orange river. I concehed the idea of constructing a raft and thus transporting my few necessary effects, camping on the banks as inclination in-clination led mc, or, as I fancied the locality favored sport. I had had too much experience among floating logs whilst lumbering in America not to feel at home at this kind of work: and all in all, though I did not travel far, I spent one of the most exciting trips I ever had. All along either side of this fine river is a wide belt of "wait-a-bit" thorns and bush timber, tim-ber, on which lovely green beetles played in great profusion. I caught numbers, every one of which brought me in 3d in Cape Town, for jewelry purposes. I had seen beetles set up in a similar fashion in Rio de Janeiro and so had an eye to possible business: busi-ness: as also, we used to get alligators teeth down In Alabama and Florida, but these creatures have got so scarce now that it hardly pays to hunt themi Having got everything fixed on my raft, and as the river hereabouts wa3 prowling animals, which I found out were leopards. I was exasperated by tho loss of my best dog, and made up my mind, if possible, to get a fine skin and avenge his death at ono and the same time; so making a hurried breakfast and leaving my two Kaffir boys in charge of the skerm, I set out with the only dog I now had left. The spoor, which was plain enough in the sand, led right away towards the river, which on either side is bordered bor-dered for a quarter of a mile or so with "wait-ablt" thorns and underbrush. under-brush. - After goln a mile or more my dog showed special eagerness, and pulled up at a tree, the bark of which was all scored by the claws of leopards leop-ards and was evidently used by them and was just about starting back for camp, when the dog again attracted my attention, acting as though he had picked up a fresh 6cent; and although I felt pretty sick, still I could not resist re-sist the temptation and followed him, first of all hanging up the skin on a thorn bush. The dog held on and I followed as well as I could for perhaps per-haps another mile, fortunately along the wooded ground the best part of the time, so that I was shaded to some extent from the burning sunbeams which under ordinary circumstances would have caused me no inconven- . ience. but now almost prostrated me. I doubtless had lost considerably more blood, than I imagined, but the sudden renewed barking of the dog put new life into me and I hurried on. The continually for stretching their talons. A lot of porcupine quills also lay around, showing that the leopard had recently made a meal, of which I was glad, for I thought I should be more likely to find him lazy and lying up, and hence easier to manage. A little further on I came to a kloof or ravine, which I had to descend and ascend. Attacked by the Savage Beast. Before I reached tho top, the dog began barking and I hurried on. as well as I could, over the loose stones, for I did not want to lose my only remaining dog. He, however, came yelping back, just as I gained tho top of the bank, and at tho same time I caught sight of the leopard, which w as making across the open for a patch of thorns a couple of hundred yard3 distant I wa6 somewhat out of breath from scrambling over the uneven un-even ground, but,- taking as careful aim as I could, I fired. 1 knew I had bit him all right, even If he had not stopped and bitten at the wound, but the shot was too far back as well as too low. At the same instant he caught sight of me, whilst I, not relishing relish-ing his looks, hastily pushed in another an-other cartridge. I had not my trusty "Winchester" then, or the leopard would not have served me as he did. The weapon I was using was a converted con-verted Enfield carbine, which, though a splendid shooter, only took one shell and required cappin; I could not get the cap on before he was upon me, and over we both went in a heap 1 undermost. He got my ft arm between be-tween his teeth, and I could feel his fangs crunching, -but I seized my long hunting knife, and managed to get it under his chin and gave a frantic gash which almost cut his head off. In the meantime my dog had regained re-gained his composure; since he had seen two of hl6 comrades flattened out by leopards ho had often turned tail, but ho was very useful in tracking track-ing them. I had rolled the skin up leopard had hurried on to some rockr ground, where he had evidently located lo-cated himself, as he would not probably prob-ably leave his stronghold for any dog, I 6at down and rested a while. I also examined the breech- of my carbine and arranged things as well as I could, so that no repetition of the last "contretemps" "con-tretemps" 6houM occur. The dog was working at : revice In the rocks in which I had calculated the leopard was ensconced, and I cautiously approached ap-proached to Investigate. I could, however, how-ever, neither hear nor see anything at first, but after a while, as my eyesight eye-sight got accustomed to the gloom, I made out two balls of fire. They might have been ono yard, they might have been 50 yards away, I could not tell that did not signify and taking steady aim between them. I let go. The report was so deafening that I could not have heard any other sound had there been one, but the "eyes" had gone out when the smoke cleared away and all was still. After waiting a while, I cut a limb or two as straight as I could find, and splicing them Into one long one, pushed the pole up into the recesses of the aperture, and withdrawing with-drawing It. after twisting it around against some soft substance, found, sure enough, leopard's fur on the end. I now felt no hesitation about going in. though this was more easily said than dpne. I could with difficulty squeeze myself through the narrow opening, and to do so caused me excruciating ex-cruciating pain. Once through, how-ever, how-ever, I had more room, and soon ' reached my quarry, which I got at last into the daylight, not a little glad to be out of the business so well. I then had to skin her a female, and doubtless mate to the one I had killed In the morning. Then returning to where I had left the other skin I made tracks for the wagon. By permission of Lonirnint, Green A Co., New York. (Copyright, 1909, by BenJ. U, Hampton.) familiar to me. I had no difficulty in making a landing, as I had proposed some 20 miles further down, passing the ford to Hope Town on my way. Among other things I had with me a hammock and a poncho which I had used out in the Banda Orientale, Moth of which, besides being of the greatest use, went into very small compass. After taking a cup of coffee without milk and a snack or two of spring bok, 1 literally turned iu, with my carbine beside mc and my dog curled up at my feet, to be lulled to sleep by sounds as familiar as those heard on a summer sum-mer day at home. Blinded by a Sand Storm. As the sun rose it speedily dissipated dissi-pated the river mist, and a little way out on the veldt and beyond the tlm her, it was as sultry as ever. I could spy some small specks away to the southward, and as a fresh bit of venison veni-son would be an agreeable change, I started after what I knew would furnish me therewith, if I could manage man-age to circumvent them. This was not particularly difficult, for I could keep myself covered by one ant-hill or another, an-other, and I got my buck all right, sending the rest bounding away with tremendous jumps. The ominous darkening of the horizon had not escaped es-caped my notice, but almost before I was aware of It the hot sand came stinging like so. much small shot against my face. In such cases, the only thing to be done is to throw yourself flat on your chest and hold your breath till the hot blast has blown over. The sand storm did not last many minutes, but the thunderstorm thunder-storm Immediately burst in such a way as it only does in South Africa, and I speak from experience both of this, as well as other parts of the world. It wi over almost as 60on as it came, and for a short space the Handy veldt looked like a sheet of water, which, however, was sucked up In no time, the sun bursting forth in all its splendor and drying mo. drenched as I was. before I could get my buck back to camp. AND OVER WE BOTH WENT IN A HEAP. After skinning my buck and making the hind portions Into ham, and' getting get-ting a meal of fresh meat, I set out along the bank of the river to see if I could hit upon any leopard spoor. I had not gone far beforo I came to the remnants of a porcupine. Leopards appear to havo a great partiality for the flesh of these animals, and as they are common enough along the Orange river, it doubtless accounts for the presence of tbelr persecutors. 1 hunted for the rest of tho day without with-out finding any more signs, although I felt satisfied that there were some leopards In the neighborhood, so I could only postpone ray search until the morrow. In the morning I got afloat once more, and dropped about four mile:; down to the place I had turned back from the day before. This did not occupy long, and I was soon fast again in a kind of backwater, back-water, with my traps once more on dry land. I was eager to follow up the leopard, which I was confident had gone down, not up. the river; indeed. in-deed. 1 ha1 hardly proceeded a quarter quar-ter of a mile before I found pug- back before I could get a proper sight making all the time a snarling, purring noise. Under the circumstances circum-stances it would have been risky to have attempted a 6hot, so I was compelled com-pelled to wait until he gave me some sort of a chance. To havo had him come tumbling down wounded was not a bit to my fancy. In tho meantime I looked about to see if there were another tree near by which I could climb, and I actually did ascend one, but had to give up the idea, for I could not get a sight pf him at all, so I returned re-turned to tho ground. First Shot Brings Him Down. , Once or twice I raised my weapon, only to lower It, feeling it was safer to wait. On a sudden he raised his head, as if some sound at a distance had arrested his attention, for he gazed right away into space. This was my opportunity not a very fine one certainly, for there was quite a network net-work of small branches intervening but I frot a pretty fair sight and let him have it Down he came almost from where I shot tho last; so I turned about, after a couple of miles, and worked back along the margin of the bush, near tho veldt, carefully beating beat-ing any llkely-looklng spots. Half way or so back was a denso mass of thorns with a lot of rock and boulders, looking look-ing a very likely place to hold such game. I went to the veldt 6lde to reconnoitre, and there Immediately found fresh pug-marks, not only of one, but of three, leopards; evldontly those of an old ono and her cubs. This at onco accounted for the demeanor de-meanor of tho one I had got, and as a leopard with young, or for' the matter mat-ter of that any animal almost in such circumstances, requires extra care in tackling, I called the dog to heel, whilst I cogitated a bit what course to pursue. Examining the tracks, I put tho cubB down as half grown. - I also made a detour of the clump of bush and satisfied myself that the game was at home. Returning to the spot where I had first marked thorn, I followed them In slowly, "Snap" be-. be-. ing taken up with a piece of string- tho old leopard appeared to be done for I gave one of them a bullet in the chest, the other turning tall and scampering oft into the bush with "Snap" (who had got loose) at his heels, whilst I stepped into the open and let tho one I had wounded have another ball, catching him In tho orifice ori-fice of the ear and killing him instantly. in-stantly. As I approached them the old one rolled over, and I was about to fire at her again, when I noticed that her eye was already glazed, and It would only be wasting ammunition. After a hasty glance of admiration I left them as they lay and hurried after tho yelping terrier, who from tho sound appeared to have come to a halt, though I could hear no snarling. Before, however, I could catch up, the leopard must have made another start The scrub was thick Just here, and the everlasting "wait-a-bit" thorns retarded retard-ed my progress considerably, besides punishing. me not a little. Still I pushed on iuto the open veldt Just in time to sec the two making across for the Umber on the other side of the setting me in his rush. I had, however, how-ever, picked up my carbine and fired at him, just as he was disappearing into the cover. I distinctly heard the pat of tho bullet and was about to follow, when I saw that the poor dog demanded my attention, so picked him up. The scratches were ugly ones, tend to them at once I might lose him; I thereforo carried him back to camp and washed, stitched, and dressed his wounds. I returned afterwards, after-wards, to try and follow tho leopard, but could not find any further trace of him. except blood marks. I therefore there-fore went and 6klnncd the other two, and made up my mind to leave the cub I had wounded until the morrow, I tracked him up next day and found him dead, about a quarter of a mile from whfre I had fired at him. my lucky shot having gone through his heart. This reminds me of an escapade I had with one of these creatures somo time previously, further south. As Is so frequently the case. I had been much disturbed during the night by r , |