52 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



The night was pitch dark, so that nothing could be 

 seen; but Mollyeon told me that a lion and a leopard 

 were prowling round us, endeavoring to obtain tiie veni- 

 son of the zebras, which hung in festoons in the trees 

 beside us; and next moment I heard the voices of both, 

 for the lion roared and the leopard shrieked wildly as 

 they sprang after the dogs. At length their boldness 

 increased ; the lion chased the dogs with angry growls 

 within twenty yards of where we stood, and the leop- 

 ard actually sprang into the center of my larder beside 

 the fire, and was making off with a large fragment of 

 ribs, when the dogs went gallantly at him. He turned 

 upon them, and so terribly lacerated two that they soon 

 after died from their wounds. We now snatched up 

 large flaming brands from the fire, and, meeting the 

 lion as he advanced, we sent them flying in his face, 

 when I fancy he made off. I feared to use my rifle 

 lest I should shoot the dogs. The horses and oxen, al- 

 .though much alarmed, did not endeavor to break loose, 

 being still very much fatigued from the hardships they 

 had undergone. 



On the morning of the 2d I shot a koodoo, which 

 antelope seemed here to be tolerably abundant ; and 

 about mid-day, as I sat writing beneath the wagon, I 

 observed a troop of zebras approaching the fountain, 

 followed by a string of koodoos, three of which carried 

 unusually fine horns. While I sat looking at them 

 through my spy-glass, I directed Ruyter to bring up the 

 horses, when we saddled the " Gray" and the "Chest- 

 nut Pony," and rode slowly toward them, till they 

 started, when we gave them chase. They took right up 

 the face of a stony ridge, and as they disappeared over 

 its summit the Bushman was riding within a spear's 

 length of the finest buck. Before, however. I could gain 



