270 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



single animals, parties of ten or twelve being not 

 uncommon. 



A party of twelve lions would probably consist of 

 say two males, three or four full-grown females, and 

 half a dozen large cubs, which, except that they are 

 slighter built, would appear, if not very closely looked 

 at, to be almost as large as full-grown lionesses. In 

 July 1880 I came one day upon a lion, three full- 

 grown lionesses, and three small cubs. Now, if each 

 of these lionesses had had a couple of large cubs, tlTe 

 whole party would have formed what one would be 

 justified in talking of as a troop of ten lions. As to 

 the character of the lion, I myself consider him to be 

 a far more dangerous animal to meddle with than any 

 other in South Africa. However, I write this under 

 correction, as I have only killed sixteen lions to my 

 own rifle, which is not a sufficient number upon which 

 to base one's verdict as to the general disposition of 

 an animal. That more accidents have happened in 

 encounters with buffaloes than with lions is not that 

 the former is a more dangerous animal than the latter, 

 but because, for every lion that has been killed in the 

 interior (within my own experience at any rate), at 

 least fifty buffaloes have been brought to bag. 

 Hunting lions with dogs usually reduces the danger 

 to a minimum, as the beast's attention is, as a general 

 rule, so occupied with the yelping pack that sur- 

 rounds him, that he pays no attention to his more 

 formidable enemies ; it sometimes happens, however, 

 that he dashes straight through the dogs at his human 

 adversary. If mounted, too, the hunter's skin is 

 often saved by the fleetness of his horse ; for, except 

 in forest which is too thick to allow one to gallop 

 at full speed, or where the soil is deep, soft sand, I do 

 not think an average lion can overtake an average 



