Sport in East Africa. 317 



still, leaving me to choose my own time. These rumi- 

 nants, which were chewing the cud in peace, 

 suddenly jumped up, sprang forward, and were almost 

 on the top of us before I could raise the rifle to my 

 shoulder. I threw myself down. The guide sprang 

 up like a jack in the box, and with a yell which might 

 have frightened a person of the most stringent nerves, 

 to say nothing of poor harmless beasts like antelope, 

 he brought them to a momentary standstill. I fired 

 at the largest, the shikarie at another, mine toppled 

 over at once and proved to be the bull. It took us 

 over an hour to find the one hit with the arrow, not 

 that it had gone any long distance or that it had sur- 

 vived many minutes, but in its death struggles it had 

 bounded here and there and had finally fallen into a 

 narrow watercourse and lay concealed amidst a 

 quantity of foliage. I sent the man back for porters, 

 and cut off the two heads, both good of their kind, 

 and had partially flayed the bull by the time the 

 bearers arrived to take back the meat to camp. 

 Wondering what could have frightened the animals, 

 I searched the surface of the surrounding ground, 

 more especially near where they were lying down 

 when first seen. The ground was hard and it was not 

 easy to trace the spoor of any footsteps, but in a 

 slightly moist bit I saw the imprint of the foot of 

 either a very large leopard or a smallish lion. 



Everything was as still as death. So, sending the 

 men back to camp, I hid myself to ascertain what 

 had caused all the commotion. After waiting until 

 I was heartily sick of my cramped position, I got 

 up and went forward. I had brought a bottle of 

 strychnine with me, and cutting an incision or two 



