276 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



experience that a far larger proportion of them do 

 charge than of any other animal in Southern Africa 

 with which I am acquainted ; and as their powers of 

 concealing themselves, and their quickness anci agility 

 in attack, are far greater than in the elephant, buffalo, 

 or rhinoceros, I pronounce them to be more dangerous 

 animals to meddle with than any of these. As with 

 men and all other animals, individual lions differ so 

 much in disposition one from another that it is im- 

 possible to tell from one's experience ot one what the 

 next is likely to do, and I do not consider that any 

 man has a right to say that lions are cowardly beasts, 

 because the two or three that he has shot have not 

 happened to show fight, but have perhaps exhibited 

 great pusillanimity. At night, and when urged on 

 by hunger, lions are sometimes incredibly daring ; in 

 fact, as old Jan Viljoen once said to me, " A hungry 

 lion is a true devil, and fears nothing in this world." 

 In illustration of the audacity and perseverance some- 

 times displayed by lions when desperate from hunger, 

 I will give a short account of some incidents that 

 occurred at our camp near the Umfule river on the 

 nights of June 30 and July i, 1880. 



Having formed a camp on the banks of a small 

 stream, a tributary of the Umfule river, Messrs. 

 Jameson, Collison, and myself went away on the 30th 

 of June to the north-east in search of elephants, 

 leaving Dr. Crook, a gentleman who had accompanied 

 Mr. Jameson from the Diamond Fields, and who 

 was not a very ardent sportsman, in charge of the 

 encampment. Besides Dr. Crook, there remained at 

 the waggons a young colonist, Ruthven by name, in 

 Mr. Jameson's employ, a lot of colonial coloured 

 drivers who were going away hunting in the " fly " 

 country on the following day, and at least twenty 



