196 STALKS ABROAD 



We returned the next day, but the carcase had 

 been devoured and we found nothing but tracks. 

 That evening I went out with Burton, who shot a 

 zebra as bait for lions. They are very fond of these 

 animals. On 2nd March I left camp early and soon 

 found lion tracks. It was interesting to watch my 

 Masai guide and Hassan puzzling them out. Little 

 marks and scratches in the sand which meant 

 nothing to me told them a plain tale. I thought 

 that they were in fault at times, and that the dis- 

 placed particles of earth or trodden blades of grass 

 must be accidental, but sooner or later in some soft 

 red patch of earth would follow the great round pug 

 marks which told us that we were on the trail. For 

 two hours or more this went on. Then the tracks led 

 into some bushes. As we got closer there came a 

 jump, and a thud, and the soft pad, pad, of some 

 heavy animal moving off. On we went, and there a 

 few minutes later, on the opposite slope of a shallow 

 valley, stood two lions. I can hardly bear to write of 

 it even now, for I never saw one again. Great, tawny 

 brutes, with something dog-like about them, they 

 watched us for some time. The lioness, for one was a 

 female, lay with her head sunk to the level of a 

 tuft of grass, behind which she crouched, whilst the 

 lion, higher up the hill, moved slowly about among 

 the rocks. Then the pair of them slunk off. Some 

 hours later, by dint of careful hard work on the part 

 of Hassan, we had tracked them to a clump of bushes. 

 The tracks went in but did not come out again on the 



