The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
I suppose I showed my incredulity in my face, 
for Weddell at once said, ‘‘ You wait until to- 
morrow, and I will take you to the very tree, 
and you will probably be able to verify this 
thing for yourself.” I looked forward, therefore, 
to the morning. An early start with a walk of 
perhaps a mile brought us to a sandy cutting 
through two heavily reeded patches of country. 
‘“*There is the tree I was telling you about last 
night,’’ my guide said, and he and I went up to it. 
There was plenty of fresh lion spoor in the sand. 
We continually came upon fresh pugs, so that it 
was evident that lions were fairly numerous in 
this place. Arrived under the tree, I found a 
small space denuded of reeds, what grass there 
was had been trodden and trampled level with 
the ground. I now proceeded to examine the 
tree, and found, surely enough, that there were 
any quantity of claw-marks up the bole of it, 
which had a distinct tendency to be out of 
perpendicular, in fact, it had quite a cant to one 
side. My curiosity was now thoroughly aroused, 
so I laid down my rifle and proceeded to climb 
into the branches, which was a comparatively easy 
thing to do. Here there was no mistaking the 
evidence that some animals were in the habit 
of lying out on one particular branch of the 
tree, for it was deeply scored throughout its 
length by claw-marks. I cannot say that I saw 
a lion or lioness jump down from the tree, but 
18 fe) 
