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Wild Beasts and Their Ways

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declared that the disconsolate husband had followed the course of his wife's body, denoted by the drops of blood that had dripped upon the ground when carried by the camel towards the camp. My people were of opinion that the lion was determined upon vengeance, and that he would assuredly bound over our fence, although he could not absolutely break through it. The night was always interesting upon the banks of the Settite river, as vast numbers of wild animals were astir half an hour after sunset, which either came down to drink, or to wander in search of green pasturage, that was only to be found in places from which the water had retreated. The lions were accordingly on the alert, and the threatening sound of their deep voices was to be heard in every direction, until approaching daylight drove them to their thickets. There is nothing so beautiful, or enjoyable to my ears, as the roar of a lion upon a still night, when everything is calm, and no sound disturbs the solitude except the awe-inspiring notes, like the rumble of distant thunder, as they die away into the deepest bass. The first few notes somewhat resemble the bellow of a bull; these are repeated in slow succession four or five times, after which the voice is sunk into a lower key, and a number of quick short roars are at length followed by rapid coughing notes, so deep and powerful that they seem to vibrate through the earth. Our nocturnal visitor did not indulge in the usual solo, but he continued throughout the night to patrol the circuit of the camp, occasionally betraying his presence by a guttural roar, or by the well- known deep sigh which exhibited the capacity of his lungs. We could not see to shoot, owing to the darkness outside the fence, and the brightness of our fire within the camp; this my men industriously replenished with wood, and occasionally hurled fire-brands in the direction of the intruder. At length we went to sleep, leaving the natives to keep watch; they declared that nothing would induce them to close their eyes, as the lion would assuredly carry off one of the party before the morning. To their great discontent, I refused to disturb the night by firing a gun, as I had determined to hunt up the lion on the following day at sunrise. Upon waking early, we discovered the deep footprints upon the sandy soil, which had marked a well-beaten path around our impenetrable fence, showing that the lion had been patrolling steadily throughout the night. This fact led me to suppose that I should most probably find him somewhere within a very short distance of the camp. I started with some of my best men, and instead of a light single-barrel I carried my '577 rifle. The position of our camp was exceedingly favourable for game, as the river made a circuitous bend, which had in ages past thrown up a mass of alluvial soil of several hundred acres, all of which was now covered with a succession of dense patches of nabbuk jungle, interspersed with forest trees and numerous small glades of fine dwarf grass, which formed a sward. I felt certain that our visitor of the last night must be somewhere in this neighbourhood, and I determined to devote the entire day to a rigorous search; in this my men were unanimous, as they objected to passing another night in sleepless excitement and anxiety. Luck was against us. I had numerous opportunities during the day of shooting other animals, but I was devoted entirely to the lion, which we could not find. I was scratched with countless thorns, as we broke through the thickest bushes, peering beneath their dark shade, and searching every acre of the ground in vain. In spite of the great heat, we worked from early morning until half an hour before sunset without resting from our work; all to no purpose; there were tracks of lions in all directions, but the animal itself was invisible. It was time to turn towards home, and I led the way through low bush and sandy glades not larger than an ordinary room, all of which were so much alike that it was difficult to decide whether we had examined them before, during the day's hard march. In several places we discovered our own footprints, and thus cheerlessly we sauntered homewards, tired, and somewhat disgusted at the failure. We were within half a mile of the camp, and I was pushing my way through some dwarf green nabbuk about 5 feet high, when, upon breaking into a small open glade, a large lion with a dark shaggy mane started to its feet from the spot where it had been lying, probably half asleep. I instantly fired, before it had time to bound into the thick jungle, and with tremendous roars it rolled over beneath the dense nabbuk bushes, where at this late hour the shade was almost dark. As quick as possible I fired a second shot, as it was rolling over and over, with extraordinary struggles, and it disappeared in the almost impervious bush, dragging its hind legs in such a manner that I felt sure the spine was broken by the bullet. It was so dark that we could not discern the figure of the animal beneath the thorns, although it was only a few feet distant. Having reloaded, I hardly knew what course to pursue; we had no means of driving the lion from the bush, I therefore examined the ground, and we discovered that the nabbuk into which it had retreated was simply an isolated clump, surrounded by narrow glades of sandy turf. From this asylum I felt sure it could not move, and although it would have been more heroic to have crept into the dark cover and have given it a quietus, or more probably to have received it myself, we came to the wise conclusion that if the lion could not move, it would be there on the following morning, when we should have daylight in our favour. We returned to camp, and the night passed without disturbance. Directly after sunrise we returned to the spot, and we found the lion still alive, although completely paralysed in the hinder portions. A shot in the centre of the forehead terminated the affair, and the joint efforts of ten men succeeded after great exertion in sliding the carcase upon three inclined poles from the ground to the saddle, while the camel was kneeling in a slight hollow, which the people had scraped away for the purpose. I had no means of weighing this animal, but it was immensely massive,

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