XVII 'HE LOOKED LIKE AN ELAND BULL P 299 



often do ; but this one galloped straight into the 

 cover, and I lost the chance. The patch of bush 

 in which he now was, was not more than 100 yards 

 long by 50 broad, but was only separated from the 

 main jungle by an open piece of ground quite 

 destitute of cover and about 60 yards across at the 

 narrowest point. Having ridden round this isolated 

 piece of bush without seeing anything more of the 

 lion, I thought he must be hiding within it, and 

 determined to send to the waggon for my dogs, 

 which I knew would soon show me his whereabouts, 

 as soon as the Bushmen came up. 



They soon appeared with my mounted after- 

 rider, who at once told me that, after I galloped 

 forward, he had come on behind me across the 

 plain, and had ridden right on to five lions lying in 

 the grass, a big male and four females, which had 

 trotted slowly away to a tongue of bush extending 

 into the plain from the main jungle about a mile 

 back. 



I now rode round the piece of bush again, in 

 which I thought that the lion I had chased was still 

 hiding, with the Bushmen, in order to make sure 

 that he was still there, and had not run straight 

 through it and across the open into the solid jungle 

 beyond, which he might just have had time to do 

 without my seeing him, for I had pulled in for a 

 moment near where he had disappeared. 



Sure enough, we found his tracks emerging from 

 the top end of the bush, and followed them across 

 the open to the thick cover beyond, and as it would 

 have been useless to look for him here without 

 dogs, I galloped back at once with my after-rider 

 to where the latter had last seen the other lions. 

 ''Was the male a big one?" I asked him. ''Sir," 

 he answered, '' when he turned and stood looking 

 at me from the top of that piece of rising ground, 

 he looked like an eland bull ! " 



