xxra. 



THE BIG LION. 



THE boys skinned her while we ate lunch. 

 Then we started several of them back 

 towards camp with the trophy, and ourselves 

 cut across country to a small river known as 

 the Stony Athi. There we dismounted from 

 our horses, and sent them and the boys atop 

 the ridge above the stream, while we ourselves 

 explored afoot the hillside along the river. 



This was a totally different sort of country from 

 that to which we had been accustomed. Imagine 

 a very bouldery hillside planted thickly with 

 knee-high brambles and more sparsely with 

 higher bushes. They were not really brambles, 

 of course, but their tripping, tangling, spiky 

 qualities were the same. We had to force our 

 way through these, or step from boulder to 

 boulder. Only very rarely did we get a little 

 rubbly clear space to walk in, and then for only 



