HUNTING IN THE SOTIK 187 



not make amends for me way I had missed the zebra in 

 the morning. Among the thick brush on these hills were 

 huge euphorbias, aloes bearing masses of orange flowers, 

 and a cactus-like ground plant with pretty pink blossoms. 

 All kinds of game from the plains, even rhino, had wan- 

 dered over these hill-tops. 



But what especially interested us was that we immedi- 

 ately found fresh beds of lions, and one regular lair. Again 

 and again, as we beat cautiously through the bushes, the 

 rank smell of the beasts smote our nostrils. At last, as we 

 sat at the foot of one koppie, Kermit spied through his 

 glasses a lion on the side of the koppie opposite, the last 

 and biggest; and up it we climbed. On the very summit was 

 a mass of cleft and broken bowlders, and while on these 

 Kermit put up two lions from the bushes which crowded 

 beneath them. I missed a running shot at the lioness, as 

 she made off through the brush. He probably hit the lion, 

 and, very cautiously, with rifles at the ready, we beat through 

 the thick cover in hopes to find it; but in vain. Then 

 we began a hunt for the lioness, as apparently she had not 

 left the koppie. Soon one of the gun-bearers, who was 

 standing on a big stone, peering under some thick bushes, 

 beckoned excitedly to me; and when I jumped up beside 

 him he pointed at the lioness. In a second I made her 

 out. The sleek sinister creature lay not ten paces off, her 

 sinuous body following the curves of the rock as she crouched 

 flat looking straight at me. A stone covered the lower part, 

 and the left of the upper part, of her head; but I saw her 

 two unwinking green eyes looking into mine. As she 

 could have reached me in two springs, perhaps in one, 

 I wished to shoot straight; but I had to avoid the rock 



