CM. VII] AFTER LIONS 1(11 



hut Kerniit's first hullets mortally wounded him and 

 crippled him so that he could not come at any pace, 

 and was easily stopped het'ore covering half the distance. 

 Although nearly a foot longer than the biggest of the 

 lions I had already killed, he was so gaunt — whereas 

 they were very fat — that he weighed but little more, 

 only four hundred and twelve pounds. 



The following day I was out by myself, after impalla 

 and Roberts' gazelle ; and the day after I went out with 

 Tarlton to try for lion. \Ve were away from camp for 

 over fifteen hours. Each was followed by his sais and 

 gun -bearers, and we took a do/en porters also. The 

 day may be worth describing, as a sample of the days 

 when we did not start before dawn for a morning's 

 hunt. 

 I We left camp at seven, steering for a high, rocky hill, 

 four miles off'. We passed zebra and hartebeest, and on 

 the hill came upon Chanler's reedbuck ; but we wanted 

 none of these. Continually Tarlton stopped to examine 

 some distant object with his glasses, and from the hill 

 we scanned the country far and wide ; but we saw 

 nothing we desired, and continued on our course. The 

 day was windy and cool, and the sky often overcast. 

 Slowly we walked across the stretches of brown gi'ass- 

 land, sometimes treeless, sometimes scantily covered 

 with an open growth of thorn-trees, each branch armed 

 with long spikes, needle-sharp ; and among the thorns 

 here and there stood the huge cactus-like euphorbias, 

 shaped like candelabra, groups of tall aloes, and gnarled 

 wild olives of great age, with hoary trunks and twisted 

 > branches. Xow and then there would be a dry water- 

 I course, with fiat-topped acacias bordering it, and perhaps 

 I some one pool of thick greenish water. There was game 

 \ always in view, and about noon we sighted three rhinos 



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