tle are no inconsiderable causes
of loss. At Newera Ellia hardly a week passes without some casualty
among the stock of different proprietors. Here the leopards are
particularly daring, and cases have frequently occurred where they have
effected their entrance to a cattle-shed by scratching a hole through
the thatched roof. They then commit a wholesale slaughter among sheep
and cattle. Sometimes, however, they catch a "Tartar." The native
cattle are small, but very active, and the cows are particularly savage
when the calf is with them.

About three years ago a leopard took it into his head to try the
beefsteaks of a very savage and sharp-horned cow, who with her calf was
the property of the blacksmith. It was a dark, rainy night, the
blacksmith and his wife were in bed, and the cow and her calf were
nestled in the warm straw in the cattle-shed. The door was locked, and
all was apparently secure, where the hungry leopard prowled stealthily
round the cowhouse, sniffing the prey within. The scent of the leopard
at once aroused the keen senses of the cow, made doubly acute by her
anxiety for her little charge, and she stood ready for the danger as
the leopard, having mounted on the roof, commenced scratching his way
through the thatch.

Down he sprang!--but at the same instant, with a splendid charge, the
cow pinned him against the wall, and a battle ensued which can easily
be imagined. A coolie slept in the corner of the cattle-shed, whose
wandering senses were completely scattered when he found himself the
unwilling umpire of the fight. He rushed out and shut the door. In a
few minutes he succeeded in awakening the blacksmith, who struck a
light and proceeded to load a pistol, the only weapon that he
possessed. During the whole of this time the bellowing of the cow, the
roars of the leopard and the thumping, trampling and shuffling which
proceeded from the cattle-shed, explained the savage nature of the
fight.

The blacksmith, who was no sportsman, shortly found himself with a
lanthorn in one hand, a pistol in the other, and no idea of what he
meant to do. He waited, therefore, at the cattle-shed door, and
holding the light so as to shine through the numerous small apertures
in the shed, he looked in.

The leopard no longer growled; but the cow was mad with fury. She
alternately threw a large dark mass above her head, then quickly pinned
it to the ground on its descent, then bored it against the wall as i