The Van Buren press., 1898-10-15


mony of its colors with the tints of the
natural objects in the mountain la I'd
seape, the snow leopard erouchine
close to the ground, can even in clear
est daylight escape the observation OF
a man passing within few yards of
him. In the night time he is as near
ly invisible as a living thing of his
size can be. But although the hunter
can see nothing of the leopard, every
movement of the beast is plainly Wis
ible to the keen-eyed mouhtaineer at
his side. The transient CLEAN of a
pair Of fiery eyes reveals to the hunter
for a moment the animals position
as it steals toward the goat. Again
he sees, not the leopard, but the NOV
ing shadow of the creature as il
crosses an open space. The leopard is
now so near that the hunter tries no
longer to follow his movements, but
watches only the goat.
Hitherto the leopard's approach has
been noiseless. Now there comes the
sound of swift rush through the low
had stood there are two animals, one
snarling fiercely as he crushes the
other to the ground. This is the hunt
er's one brief opportunity. If his shot
strikes true the leopard is killed at once,
or thrashes about among the rocks, dis
abled. If missed or slightly wounded,
the creature disappears as suddenly as
if the earth had swallowed him TYP. His
retreat is as noiseless as his coming,
and there is no more hope for the hunt
er of enticing that particular leopard
to his bait at any subsequent time.
Instances have been known indeed
where the leopard, after one shot was
fired, has stayed on the spot, still en-
deavoring to carry away the goat, un-
til second shot and even third shot
WAS fired; but such cases are uncom-
mon.
at was by this method of hunting
that | secured the skin that you see.
| was so lucky as to shoot the leopard
squarely through the heart. Another
snow leopard that | killed was not
bagged so easily as this one. l was not
watching by bait, but came upon him
| suddenly in narrow gorge one day
while hunting wild sheep. just beyond
where / started the leopard the gorge
ended in cliff too steep for him to
| climb, and there was no way for him
to escape without going by or over me
| 1t is commonly said that the snow
leopard will not attack man, but this
one, when he found himself cornered
| looked as dangerous as leopard could
look, and | fired, just in time, as he
was coming for me. Ny shot struck
him, glancingly, in the head without
killing him, but it mixed him up BIZ
so that he missed his spring and went
on by me down the gorge.
81 thought that / had lost the leop-
ard, and, for the moment. was nov sor-
ry to part company with him. But two
of my men who had stayed at the
mouth of the gorge came running uI
at the sound of the shot and tried tc
turn the beast with their climbing
slaves. The leopard pulled one of then
down in a twinlIling, bit his arm to the
bone and clawed his face and chest
badly. He had just turned to attack
the other man, who stayed pluckily by
his comrade, when came up and fired
again, at short range, breaking the
leopard's shoulder 1t took two more
shots in the head to finish the beast
/ got a beautiful leopard skin through
the best man in my party for the re
mainder of the hunting trip"