The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-07-29
Followed by Observation-Disclosures In
the Jungles Of India.

"Out of India" an old jungle sports
man said, Every little is known about the
cheetah. Some years ago they had one
OF these animals in the Central Park
menagerie, but, being pressed for room,
they put him into the cage with Ben
gal tiger. Now, the cheetah is fierce
brute enough, and hard and vicious
fighter at times, but he is not safe in a
tigers cage. In the morning dead
cheetah lay within the bars, and one of
the chief curiosties of the not verv ex-
tensive collection of beasts in the gar
den was lost. The appearance of the
cheetah is remarkable. He is as tall as
the tiger, or taller, but, though very
sinewy and strong, he seems to lack
muscular development, and his body is
SO thin that he Away looks half
starved. The old writer's called him
the hunting leopard and it may be
that he was once trained to assist in
the chase. But, so far as my expert
ence goes, he has a marked preference
for two-legged game. He is cruel,
cowardly and horribly treachefous. He
will patiently and silently follow trav-
eler for miles through the jungle, keep
ing all the time within eighty or hun
dred yards of him, drawing nearer
when the mans back is turned toward
him, and falling again to the rear the
moment his intended victim faces him.
In such emergencies safety rests only
in unceasing vigilance. The cheetah
never springs upon a man whose eyes
are fixed upon him. But let the trav-
eler remain for many minutes with his
back to his pursuer, and his life is pref
ty sure to pay the forfeit for his care
lessness. Quickly the brute creeps
within springing distance, and, like
flash, is on his victim. His long claws
and sharp, cat-like teeth soon do the
work of destruction, and another is
added to the appallingly long list of
persons who are annually destroyed by
wild beasts in India.
II have heard curious stories from
Indian travellers about the horror of
journeying through the jungle at night
with one of these creatures on the
track. A native hunter once told me
his experience on such occasion. He
started at shutdown to cross track of
entirely uncultivated and uninhabited
country. He was armed with the long
and not very effective musket used by
men of his profession, and, as usual, it
was loaded, not with ball, but with an
immense charge of powder and hand
full of slugs, such as would kill a deer
at close quarters, but which would not
be trusted to dispose of a tiger or a
cheetah. unless atvery short range. 1t
was the hunters intention to travel on
foot until midnight, and then light a
fire to keep off wild beasts, and sleep
until daylight. But when the time for
rest came, the hunter made an UNI
pleasant discovery. He had forgotten
his matches, and could not kindle
fire. While still engaged in searching
the canvas bag in which he thought he
had placed them, his attention was at
tracted by two bright objects that seemed
to flash upon him from a distance of
nearly hundred yards away. and he
knew that cheetah was watching him.
Though he could see nothing of the ami
NAL except its eyes, the brute evidently
saw him plainly enough, for no sooner
did he look in it's direction than it
skunk off and disappeared. But to
sleep in the darkness when those eyes
had once fallen upon him was, he
knew, certain death. There was
nothing to do but walk on, and he
started at brisk pace. Every two
minutes or so for the next hour he turn
ed and looked around, and each time he
did so he found that the cheetah had
crept softly to within forty or fifty yards
of him. It drew off the instant he
turned his face to it. This mode
of pursuing his journey was, to say
the least of it, irksome, and the
Hindoo determined to end it if pos
sihle. He decided to walk on for a
period long enough TO give the cheetah
an opportunity to approach to within
twenty yards of him, and then, turning
quickly, give the brute charge of
slugs. His scheme was very nearly
successful in bringing the chase to an
end, but not exactly in the way he had
hoped. The cheetah's progress, in
some measure, resembled that of a
stone dropping to the earth. The
nearer it approached its destination
the faster it moved, and when the hum
ter wheeled it was not ten yards from
him, and in another second its fatal
| spring would have been made; but.
even with so short distance separat-
ing it from the object of its pursuit, it
fell back so quickly into the darkness
when the hunters face was toward it
that he could not get a shot at it. At
about three o'clock in the morning the
hunter began to feel very drowsy, and,
sitting down with his back against a
tree, he determined to watch and think
until morning.
'He watched cautiously and thought
intently for perhaps ten minutes, with
his musket across his knee. Then his
meditations led him into an imaginary
paddy field, and he was shooting a
very delicate and appetizing species of
game known as the paddy bird He
brought down hundred of them, and
he had clutched his gun with DELHI
crate intention of numbering the hum
dred and first, when the revengeful
bird darted at him, tore him terribly
on the face, breast and arms, and al
most fattened him against the tree.
"In a moment the Ilindoo was on
his feet, and in the same space Of time
the paddy bird had changed into a
cheetah. The brute had crawled up
and sprung upon him, but, in its
ravenous thirst for blood, it had &C.
tually overlooked the tree. against
which the man was sleeping. Its claws
had lacerated the hunter severely, but,
encountering the unexpected shock
from the tree in the rear, it bounded
aside few yards without completing
it's work. Seeing its expected prey
facing it, the cowardly brute tried
even then to sneak away, but it was
too close this time, and the heavy
charge OF, slugs that was intended for
the paddy bird of dreamland tore
it's throat open, and stretched it life
less upon the ground.--M r San.
L In R0fhim0