WOUNDED LEOPARD.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 November 1924, Page 8

WOUNDED LEOPARD.

ATTACKS HUNTER. BOTH DROWNED IN RAPIDS. More like a page from sensational fiction than a real life happening is the report that comes from Africa of the death of a hunter, where a leopard. which he thought was dead, caused his canoe to overturn, and hunter and quarry perished in the rapids. in the course, of his day’s sport, the hunter in question shot and killed, as he supposed, a leopard. He threw the carcase into the bottom of his canoe, intending to skin it at home. Paddling contentedly down the stream, hut intent on keeping his canoe out of the strong current which carried the river waters over a rapid, he did not notice the movements of the leopard. There-, was a way round and lie was concentrating his attention on steering of the canoe. Suddenly there was an angry growl close to his ear’ and sharp teeth bit savagely into the flesh of his shoulderThe leopard, which he thought dead, had regained its strength, and, with concentrated fury, attacked him, The sudden onslaught caused the ha liter to drop th e paddle. At the same moment he gripped his hunting; knife and prepared to fight for his life. But the slight delay proved fatal, The loss of the paddle left the canoe without guidance, and the current. seizing it, whirled it over the rapids, both hunter and hunted being tossed into the angry waters As the hunter did not return to the camp that night, a search was organised at daylight nest day. Just over the rapids, in the quiet waters, the flattered canoe was found, and •i little further down the bodies of bo<h the hunter and the leopard. Verily, truth is often-times stranger ‘■han fiction.