Evening star., 1925-01-04


is undoubtedly a protection IL you are
charged by a wounded animal.
have another theory, supported by a
few instances, that a tiger or leopard
Will not charge home II he gets two
barrels of black powder in his face
at very close range.
! round that the nullah was about
500 yards long and of the shape of an
elongated hour glass. The villagers
turned out and beat one end of the
nullah down to the narrow neck near
the middle, where l took up my posi-
tlon behind a tree. The beat began
and after time something made me
look over my shoulder, and I saw the
leopard a. big one, galloping over the
open behind me, In order to get into
the other broad part OF the nuIlah,
which was full of trees and bushes.
THERE was time for only one shot.
= and as / pulled the trigger ]
thought that l had missed him be-
hind, just as sometimes when shoot
ing at fast-crossing bird one feels
instinctively that the gun at the mo-
ment OF firing is not pointed far
enough forward. Examination Of the
ground showed the mark of the bull
let, and as there was no blood from
that point up TO the edge of the
ravine where the leopard had entered
u was convinced that l had missed.
The villagers went around to the
other end of the ravine, in order to
beat II up from the reverse direction.
When they had gone about half way
there was n lot OF shouting and com
motion, and * was evident that the
leopard had charged the beaters. lie
Dad, IN fact, knocked down one man
and clawed him, though not ve;y
badly. ! went and looked in the
nullah and found some blood spots.
when showed that the leopard had
been wounded by my FIRST bullet.
Now, there is an unwrittsa rule
among sportsmen in India that one
must not send unarmed beaters after
dangerous animal when wounded.
II this is done, some one is aimos.
certain to get hurt. IF the animal
gets away wounded. il is the duty Of
the sportsman himself to follow II I'D.
FOLLOWING wounded carnivora on
loot was never one OF my favorite
pastimes, but IL has to be done some
times. | was much annoyed to think
that l had unwittingly allowed the
oeaters to go in when the leopard
was wounded. 1t was up to me" 70
md him and finish him off.
therefore started down the mid
die OF the ravine. The cover was not
very thick. II was full of willow
trees with low branches with q num-
Der OF green bushes growing under
them. ] was carrying my gun at the
hip and had just got under a low
branch of tree when from a small
bush, Just In front OF me. the leopard
sprang at me with the usual grunt-
ing roar.
] had a vision of him in the air,
right above me. with outstretched
claws and waving tail. and just had
time to fire the gun from the hip in
his face while in the air. He must
have swerved while actually In the
air, as. instead Of landing on me, he
landed close to my feet on my right,
and as he touched the ground swerved
round and darted back into the
jungle,
/ ascribe my escape to the use of
black powder, as the bullet did not
hit him. ! hit him with the left
barrel s he fed. We picked him up
dead later and found that my first
bullet. the one which / thought had
missed. had gone through the feshy
part OF one thigh. The wounded man
was treated with dlsirfectants and
rapidly recovaxed
In another district l was in camp
one afternoon. at the base OF the low
hills which form the Southern range
of the Rimalayas. i was listening
70 reports on the various matters
which district officer has to mis-
ri-nage, An excited villagsr rushed
in with the news that a tiger had
killed two women on the hillside,
close TO a path which led from the
plains TO two or three little hamlets
in the low hills. He said It was about
mile away.
4 horse was rapidly saddled and /
rode quickly up the path with a rife
in hand. After going about two
miles. ! met another viliager and
asked him if he knew anything about
the women. He said, "oh. yes,
the tiger killed two women and
has eaten the whole OF one, leav-
ing only the bones, and has partly
eaten the other one" He added that
should find the bones about half
mile farther on,
Their ideas OF distance are rather
elastic. l rode another two miles or
more and finally met some men from
the village 20 which one OF the
women belonged, and found one of
the women. what happened was that
the two women had been out gath
erIng wood or cutting grass on the
hillside and had come across a
eopard-probably a leopafdess with
small cubs.
=
THE leopard attacked them, claw
ing the first woman across the
face and biting the second one
severely. The latter had apparently
run away and been overtaken by the
leopard. The men said the animal
had bitten about two pounds OF flesh
off her. This was no doubt an exag-
geration. The second woman had
been taken TO another village.
l told the men to bring both women
to MY camp for treatment ininle-
diateIy. The woman who had been
clawed across the face was an un-
pleasant sight as the leopards claws
had raked right through her face,
removing one eyelid and cutting
through the bridge OF her nose. 1t
was an awful mess. Her lips were
cut to rags.
! returned to camp and prepared
til the next morning, when the woni-
an with the clawed face was brought
in by some OF her relations on
charpoy, or string bedstead. When
7 asked them why they had not come
on the previous evening. they said il
was getting dark and they were
afraid that the tiger" would smell
the blood of the wounded woman and
would attack thea.
On examination I found that they
had piastered up the unfortunate
lady's wounds with a thick paate
made OF tobacco and other SUBJ
stances. It took a lot OF bathing
with warm water TO remove all OF