A LIONESS SHOT. £521 



of the Mahalapia, and held east through the forest, and 

 presently we discovered the fresh spoor of two bull ele- 

 phants. As we were thridding the spoor, the dogs 

 dashed up wind on some scent, and the forest was 

 awakened with their music. I imagined they had found 

 the elephants, and pressed through the thicket at my 

 utmost speed. As I approached I heard a hoarse noise 

 like the voice of an elephant ; but my eye sought in vain 

 for his lofty back towering above the wait-a-bits. 1 

 then fancied it must be a buffalo ; but on rounding the 

 thick bush, behind which my dogs were barking, I came 

 full in sight of an angry lioness, v/hich stood lashing 

 her tail, and growling fiercely at the dogs. 



Observing the lioness, I shouted to the natives, who 

 were pressing forward, that it was " Tao," when a head- 

 long retreat was the immediate result, a number of the 

 party taking refuge in the trees. I dismounted, and, 

 advancing to within twenty yards of the lioness, waited 

 till she turned her head, when I fired at the back of her 

 neck, and stretched her lifeless on the ground. The 

 bullet had passed along the spine, and, penetrating the 

 skull, rested in her brain. On shouting to the natives 

 for a long time none of them would venture to approach 

 and when at length they did, their astonishment kne" 

 no bounds at beholding their formidable enemy so easiji,^/ 

 disposed of. Having resumed the spoor of the elephants, 

 we soon ascertained that the hubbub with the lioness 

 had started them ; and after following the spoor some 

 distance through dense jungle, and over very rocky 

 ground, along the mountain side, the trackers declaimed 

 themselves to be fairly beaten, and we gave it up. 



At an early hour on the 3d I again held east with a 

 large retinue to seek for elephants We took up spoor 

 at the fountains wliere I discovered boreh'; on the pre- 



O 2 



