300 LION-HUNTING AND LIONS 



It is not often that a dog which has been carried off 

 by a lion comes back to tell the tale, yet that is what 

 happened to Blucher when he went hunting in South 

 Africa with Mr. Selous in the year 1882. l 



One night his master was lying awake, reading, in his 

 camp in Mashonaland, when he heard Blucher and the 

 rest of the dogs set up a furious barking lower down the 

 valley. Selous sat up and listened, and as the noise 

 seemed always coming nearer, he called one of his men 

 and asked him what was the matter. 



' It must be a lion,' he said ; ' Blucher would never 

 retreat like that before a hyena ' — for hyenas are great 

 cowards and easily frightened. 



As he spoke Selous jumped down from his bed on the 

 waggon, and, followed by Norris, walked to the edge of 

 the camp. It was pitch dark, and they could see nothing ; 

 but suddenly the barking ceased, and some large animals 

 came tearing past, while the puppies dashed in for shelter 

 between the men's legs, almost upsetting them. Then 

 one of the natives rushed up from their camp a little 

 further off, shouting ' Lion ! lion ! Lion has caught big 

 dog.' 



Selous felt very sorry for the loss of his old friend, 

 but he took comfort in thinking he must have been killed 

 in a moment, or some yelps of pain would have been 

 heard. 



However, the hunter armed himself with his rifle and 

 went back with the native to his camp, where all the men 

 were sitting up, talking softly round big fires. One or two 

 declared they were sure some animal was creeping about 

 in the dead leaves outside the camp ; but as, after a search, 

 nothing could be found, Selous got tired of standing about 

 in the cold, and went back to his own waggon. He was 

 just dropping off to sleep when the puppies again set up 

 a furious yapping, and a Kaffir shouted out, ' Here's the 



1 Travel and Adventure in Africa. By F. C. Selous. 



