248 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



round in a half-circle in order to rejoin their wounded 

 comrade. I now gave it up, the more especially as 

 it was getting very late ; and although I knew I was 

 close to the waggon-road, I did not know exactly 

 how far I was from the waggons ; so, turning my 

 horse's head, I rode straight for the river, about two 

 miles distant. When within a few hundred yards of 

 the bank the remains of an old cattle kraal, huts, etc., 

 attracted my attention, as, from the position of several 

 large thorn trees in the vicinity, I thought I recog- 

 nised it as the spot where, two years before, I had 

 passed two or three rainy days. With my thoughts 

 thus engaged, I rode forwards at a slow walk, my eyes 

 always hxed on the remains of the old huts, and was 

 within about seventy yards of the kraal fence, when, 

 glancing to the front, I saw, lying straight in my path, 

 a small yellow thing, and as instantly as my eye fell 

 upon it I knew that it was a lion, for I could see 

 the yellowish eyes, and the lines from the corners 

 of them, quite plainly. He was lying exactly facing 

 me, with his head couched on his outstretched paws, 

 on a piece of bare, sandy ground, and just between 

 two little stunted wait-a-bit thorn bushes. So close, 

 however, did he manage to squeeze his body against 

 the ground, that I think, if it had not been for his 

 eyes, I should have taken his head, pressed close 

 down between his paws, for one of the little ant- 

 heaps that one sees all over the country. Whether 

 the dampness of the grass and bushes, which no 

 doubt formed his usual lair along the river's edge, 

 had caused him to come up to this dry patch of 

 ground, or whether he had seen the horse approach- 

 ing from afar, and was lying in wait for us with any 

 dire intent, I cannot take upon myself to say. At 

 any rate, there he was, not fifty yards off, straight 



