The Washington herald., 1920-05-02
Eurepe's heavyweight champion,
Georges Carpenter, and his wife

superior intelligence, ever consents 70 for
20. Leopard and chimpansee, or leopard
and sorilla, cannot come Within range Of
each other without combat, and / have
not known such an encounter that left Q
survivor.
My caravan had halted for rest during
the heat of the day when we heard, above
the growls and snarls Of a leopard in the
bush, the angry tones Of a chimpanZee.
Anjanga, the guide, seeing me take up
my express 80. implored me not to inter
fere. Ny own knowledge Of the risks
made me cautious enough, so penetrated the
bush only within eyeshot OF the combatants-
1T was a fight characteristic Of the in
telligent chimpanzee, full Of the strategies
Of the prize ring, advances and retreats
for the securing of technical advantage,
exchanges of blows delivered too swiftly
for the eye to discern and grapplings dur
ing which the bruising blows Of the Chin
panzee resounded as far as the waiting
caravan-until, as 1 watched, the antag-
onists fought their way into the dense
jungle and the tumult gradually subsided.
'It would have been madness to fol-
low them. resumed my journey, but, re-
the vicinity Not far from the spot where
/ had lost sight Of them, found the
body of the chimpanzee, slashed and torn to
ribbons by the claws Of the leopard, while,
beyond, the leopard lay dead, bitten and
gashed about the head by the chimpansee't
teeth and, under the skin, its whole body
a beaten pulp.
I'm my collection Of jungle trophies is
the skull of a gorilla that perished In q
similar struggle. The one difference between
the two fights lay in the sheer, bestiil
pugnancy of the larger ape, unrelieved By
any trace of the generalship employed By
the chimpanZee.
The first faint glow Of that glorious,
universal fame which is the tropic dawn
was lighting the village of Ndogo, on the
bank of the Rembo Miami, when the pierc-
ing yells of a leopard answered the boom
ing thunder tones Of an enraged ForiIla. Ths
whole, demoniac struggle was fought out
in the course Of q half hour under the eyss
Of the villagers.
1T was a clinch from start to nnish.
For all the heavy handicap Of his rigid
spine, the gorilla was not only infinitely
stronger, but also infinitely quicker than the
leopard. But neither antagonist, in such
close quarters, was able to bite often; and
the leopard's four flying claws, as com
pared with the gorilla's two hands, gave
him double the offensive power. Yet the
gorilla made his two bare hands suffice.
He tore from its socket the leopard's
whole ear. He geuged out an eye. he
crushed in completely the temporal bone
and broke the left malar bone in two places.
And Re so failed the leopard's whole body
that not a square inch remained that was
not mere pulp. His own left forearm was
broken; arms, legs, head and breast were
everywhere gashed. Through the wounds In
his right thigh the bare bone showed, while
several of his ribs were laid open and the
leopard's. claws tore deeply into the thoracic
cavity.
The finish came suddenly. In the
midst Of his terrific blows on the leopard's
body, the great gorilla relaxed and fell dead.
The leopard as instantly ceased to ply his
bloody claws and, like cne stricken with
extreme age, dragged himself q few totterins
steps apart. Then he, too, dropped dead.
TOO many millions Of Sears have passed
since man and ape knew a common ancestor
for man now to dream Of equality as an
unarmed, bare handed hghtin- animal. The
only relics of his prehistoric proves that
remain are evidenced in the futile slap Of
the little child and the clawing scratch of
the woman