4.t>4 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



The lion was sent as a trophy to Constantino. The following day 

 they found the one previously slain He lay dead at the foot of the 

 ock where he had fallen. 



The following episode can be best related in the adventurer's 

 own words : " On the night of the 2d of January," he says, " I mor- 

 tally wounded a lion with three slugs in the shoulder, whose dismal 

 bowlings I had followed in the neighborhood of the camp of Mezez- 

 Amar. After making a preliminary examination, I returned to the 

 camp, and on the following day, at break of dawn, followed by a 

 cavalry-man and the Sheik Mustapha, returned upon the track of 

 the beast. After following the trail of his blood for the course of 

 half an hour, we discovered him, still living, in the midst of a 

 thicket, on the right bank of the river Bon Hemdem, a quarter of a 

 league to the west of Mezez-Amar. He proclaimed his presence to 

 us by his groans. As the wood in which he had taken refuge was 

 almost impenetrable, I placed Rostain (the cavalry-man) and seven 

 or eight Arabs, who had joined our party, at the outskirts of the wood 

 'and proceeded myself to descend the ravine, directing them when 

 they saw me at the bottom, about fifty feet distant from them, to throw 

 stones. The lion I thought, mortally wounded would come down 

 to me as soon as he was disturbed by the noise of the stones above. 

 But for some time he did not stir, though the stones literally rained 

 down upon his sides. 



" I made a sign, therefore, to Rostain to cease throwing, and as 

 soon as he did so, the lion, not hearing the noise any longer, rose, 

 and slowly came out, as if to listen. By a gesture of my hand I 

 prevented Rostain from attacking him, when the Shiek Mustapha'a 

 dogs, finding themselves face, to face with the beast, suddenly took 

 flight, bounding over the brushwood by Rostain and the Arabs. 

 These immediately turned tail ; and the lion seeing Rostain nearer 

 to him than the rest of the party, attacked him ; now leaping for 

 ward, and now rolling for some feet, but quickly recovering him- 

 self, and starting off" again with a howl in pursuit, when he received 

 a ball, which would have saved my man, but for the mishap of a 

 false step and a fall. The lion seized him at the instant he was re 

 covering himself, and i oiled over and over, holding the unfortunate 



