198 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



One passed within twenty feet of a hartebeeste ; 

 the latter hardly glanced at him. As the hyena 

 is lazy as well as cowardly, and almost never does 

 his killing, we inferred a good meat supply to 

 gather so many of them in one place. From a 

 tributary ravine we flushed nineteen ! 



Harold Hill was riding with me on the right 

 bank. His quick eye caught a glimpse of some- 

 thing beyond our companions on the left side. 

 A glance through the glasses showed me that it 

 was a lion, just disappearing over the hill. At 

 once we turned our horses to cross. It was a 

 heavy job. We were naturally in a tremendous 

 hurry ; and the footing among those boulders 

 and rounded rocks was so vile that a very slow 

 trot was the best we could accomplish. And 

 that was only by standing in our stirrups, and 

 holding up our horses' heads by main strength. 

 We reached the sky-line in time to see a herd of 

 game stampeding away from a depression a half- 

 mile away. We fixed our eyes on that point, 

 and a moment later saw the lion or lioness, as it 

 turned out, leap a gully and come out the other 

 side. 



The footing down this slope, too, was appalling, 

 consisting mainly of chunks of lava interspersed 

 with smooth, rounded stones and sparse tufts 



