62 SOUTH AFRICA. 



We had hardly done this, when a fine yellow- 

 maned lion emerged from behind a large tree, 

 cleared the nullah at a bound, and laid down 

 seven paces (as we found afterwards) in front of 

 my horse, who became fractious, turned tail, bucked 

 me off, and bolted, when I was attempting to 

 dismount to join my friend, who stood like a rock, 

 but fortunately refrained from firing at my request, 

 as I by no means relied on his shooting powers, 

 although he was armed with an excellent 8-bore 

 rifle which I had sold him. 



I was hors de combat, my Martini having opened 

 and thrown out the cartridge when I fell. As it 

 was absolutely necessary to recover this cartridge, 

 I crept forward in unpleasant proximity to the 

 lion, but got it My friend covered me well during 

 this operation, and indeed the lion was looking 

 at the Boers, who had heard the row and galloped 

 to a large tree two hundred yards off, whence they 

 opened fire and duly missed several shots, thus 

 giving us an opportunity of reaching with impunity 

 a mound hard by, affording a clear shot at thirty 

 paces. Having promised the shot to my com- 

 panion who had never before seen a wild lion 

 he sat down, and, as the lion was now end on, 



