SEA LION AND PANTHERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 292, 9 December 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

SEA LION AND PANTHERS.

A ISATTLE ROYAL,

A battle royal occurred on Hog Islaud U.S.A., the other day between two large panthers and a gigantic sea lion, which the witnesses declare to the most terrific combat ever seen "In their lives. A torn and bloody panther skin and a flipper of the sea lion, which was torn off during the struggle, bear evidence that the date of the encounter is no "pips dream."

The only inhabitant of the island is Lewis Johnson, whose vocation is that of fisherman and chicken farmer. Samuel Short, a dealer, paid Johnson a visit with the intention of buying some chickens, and was a witness of the encounter. The two men were standing watching the antics of a number of sea lions on a reef where their rookery is situated, when they became awam that something unusual was going on. Thq sea lions began to bellow, and all dived into the water except one huge fellow, who stood his ground and appeared to be watching something. In a moment the cause of the alarm became manifest, when two large panthers, which had swum from the mainland, crawled upon the reef and made for the sea Hon.

Tbe.v pounced upon the big fellow, and a struggle immediately ensued that made the two liiimnn witnesses of the battle gaze with bated breath. The fight progressed for nearly thirty minutes, dnri:;'g which the edge of the reef was lined with crimson foam from the blood flowing from the three combatants. Finally one of the panthers succeeded in tearing a flipper off the sea lion, wh^ii, with a hoarse bellow of anger the wounded bull grasped one of the panthers by the throat and dragged it into the water, The sea liou was about, to drown the panther, and would have succeeded if he had not become weakened from loss of blood. As he released his adversary Lewis, who had previously been too fascinated to move, ran to his house for a rifle and returned in time to kill.one of the panthers as they made another attack upon the sea liou. The other panther- sprang into the water and swam for the mainland at the crack of the gun, while the sea lion struggled out toward the ocean to die. Where the battle occurred a hole was torn in the soft mud broad and deep enough in which to bury a horse. The flipper of the sea liou and the panther skin are. now in the possesion of Lewis; The skin is badly torn about the head. Both men'assert that twice the sea lion succeeded in striking a panther with his tail, knocking it ten feet away. .