Huntsville gazette., 1888-06-09
LEOPARDS AT HOME.
The Animals in Their Wild State in
British India.
One of Them Visits Bath h-RoOm-AnOthel
Appears on a Veranda-COwardly
Creaturcs-Their FOndness
for Dogs.

Many people spend great part Of
their lives in India without seeing any
thing of the wild beasts and snakes
with which it abounds. My experience
was very different. l passed only
few years in the country; but hap
pened to come frequently in contact
with its savages dcnizens, and among
other adventures had several oppor-
tunities of viewing leopards in their
wild state. Before the beautiful Him.
alayan sanitarium of Dalhousie had
increased to its present proportions it
consisted chiefly of a girdle of habita-
tions clustering around the Bukrota,
or lower hill, and a few scattered
houses dotted about on the higher
mountain, Terah. One of these latter
we took for the season by advertise
ment without having seen it; and l
was somewhat dismayed, on arrival, to
find how lonely and exposed the situa-
ton was However, the magnificent
view of the snowy range from the We
randa consoled me, and l quickly set
to work to make the bare rooms as
habitablc as possible. II fear few of
our friends will take the trouble to
mount up to this eyrie to visit us,
lamented. But the very next even
ing we were to have visitor we little
desired.
In an Indian bungalow every bed
room has small ante-room attached in
which the important function of bath
ing is performed. The floor is of ce-
ment and un-carpeted, to allow of
splashing, aud round the tub are placed
the ghurras, or earthen pots of water
which are required for the bath. The
little room has always two doors, one
opening on the outer air. to admit the
bheesti, with his supply Of water; the
other opening into the bedroom. On
the evening in question, just as dusk
was falling, had finished the unpack-
ing of Il box in my bedroom, and was
moving away, when fancied heard a
slight sound in the bathroom 1t was
an unusual hour for the bheesti's visit,
SO opened the door, and, to my horror
saw just in front of me the beautiful
sleek back Of a large leopard, which
was crouching on the floor, and drink
ing out of one of the ghurras. The
room was so small that found myself
quite close to the leopard, and could
indeed have touched the spots on its
glossy coat from where 1 stood. l was
too frightened to move and stood per-
fectly still; and, fortunately for me, the
outer door by which the creature had
entered stood still wide open, and with
single bound it cleared the threshold
and disappeared up the hillside. Had
the door blown to, or been closed from
the outside by a servant. the animal
would have no resource but to seek an
exit by the doorway in which l was
standing, and the knowledge of my
narrow escape made us very careful
about shutting up early in the afternoon.
A few nights later we were awakened
bv hearing the watchman call out loud
ly that there was leopard in the We
randa; and we ran to the window in
time to see the waving of the branches
were the beast had sprung out among
the trees. The bearer, who was lying
rolled up in his blankets in the same
veranda, slept soundly on meanwhile
unconscious of his proximity to the
stealthy-footed creature. These leop-
ards are cowardly creatures, and will
never attack human being if they can
avoid it; their special fancy is for little
dogs; and they will SO haunt the neigh
borhood of any house were dogs are
kept, that the greatest care is neces-
sary to prevent the little quadrupeds
falling victims to the big ones.
One evening we were riding quietly
home in the short cleaning, when a
large animal jumped from the jungle
above into the road close in front of
us. It ran swiftly along the road for q
short distance and then disappeared.
My companion advised that we should
hurry little, as our horses seemed I'M
easy, so we trotted on; and when we
came to the spot where we had lost
sight of the leopard, there it was, lying
on the outer edge Of the narrow mount
ain road, its eyes blazing like green
lamps in the dusk, aud its body half