CHASE BY THE COLONISTS. 110 



The " spoor" of the beast having been discovered, 

 it is followed up to its lair, which, though at times 

 amongst reeds, rank grass, and the like, is, for the 

 most part, in a dense thicket. When the hunters 

 have approached to within easy gun-shot of where 

 the beast is crouched, or at bay to the dogs, they, 

 if on horseback, dismount, and after wheeling their 

 steeds about, and " knee-haltering" them, draw up 

 in line, and, at a given signal, pour a broadside into 

 the luckless animal. If they are good shots, and the 

 distance inconsiderable, as is generally the case, the 

 lion is usually killed outright or at least placed 

 lor* dt' combat ; but should their aim have been so 

 for erring that he has still the nse of his legs, he is 

 said almost invariably to " charge." In this case, the 

 hunters themselves find a pretty safe refuge behind 

 the horses which the lion almost invariably attacks 

 in the first instance, and one or other of which are 

 commonly either severely lacerated, or, it may be, 

 pays the penalty of its life; and whilst the enraged 

 beast is thus occupied with his victim, the hunters, 

 who usually escape scot-free, put an end to his 

 existence. 



The better, however, to show the manner in 

 which the lion is hunted by the colonists, I will 

 give Thompson's description of a chase after that 

 animal, in which he himself took part : 



" I was then residing," he writes, " on my farm, 

 or location, at Barion's Uiver, in the neighbourhood 

 of which numerous heads of large game, and conse- 

 quently beasts of prey, are abundant. One night a 

 liou, who had previously purloined a few sheep out 



