Mr Leslie 07i Lion-hunting hi South Africa. 67 



he should advance upon them, that his indiscriminate fury may 

 fall upon the horses. Some of the boors are excellent marks- 

 men, and the Hottentot soldiers is far from being despicable : 

 yet many a bullet was sent ere he was slain. Fired by the 

 wounds he received, his claw was no longer harmless ; one dog 

 he almost tore to pieces, and two more were destroyed ere he 

 fell. At each shot he rushed forward as if with the intent of 

 singling out the man who fired, but his rage was always vented 

 on the dogs, and he again retired to the station he had left. 

 The ground appeared to be bathed with his blood. Every suc- 

 ceeding attempt to rush forward, displayed less vigour and fury, 

 and at last, totally exhausted, he fell ; but still the approach was 

 dangerous. In the last struggle of his expiring agony, he might 

 have inflicted a mortal wound ; cautiously approaching, he was 

 shot through the heart ; twelve wounds were counted in his 

 head, body, and limbs. He was of the largest size, and allied 

 in appearance to the species which the boors call the black lion. 

 We claimed the skin and skull ; the Bushmen the carcass, 

 which to them is a delicious morsel ; and the boors were satisfied 

 with knowing that he would commit no farther depredations on 

 them. 



On another occasion we roused two on the summit of a low stony 

 hill. They were deliberately descending one side as we reached 

 the top, and amid a shower of bullets, they quietly crossed a 

 plain to ascend another. We followed, and they separated ; we 

 brought them to bay in succession, and slew both. It appears 

 to me from what I have seen and heard, that a lion once wound- 

 ed will immediately turn upon his pursuers ; but I am of opi- 

 nion that he seldom attacks man, generally shuns his vicinity, 

 and that he has none of the reported partiality for human flesh. 

 In the district I described, and of which a description was ne- 

 cessary to show that we encountered him upon clear and open 

 ground, the various kinds of lion were originally very nu- 

 merous. The boors enumerated three, — the yellow, grey, and 

 black. Their numbers were much diminished, principally, per- 

 haps, from their retreating beyond Orange River, to an unoccu- 

 pied country, although many also were destroyed by the boors. 

 It has been said that the lion dwells in the plains. The African 



