168 THE LI OX. 



around was packed flat with the spoor of the latter. 

 One particular spoor was nearly as large as that of 

 a borcle, or black rhinoceros. 



" I then proceeded to inspect the steeds ; the sand 

 around them was also covered with the lion's spoor. 

 He had sprung upon the old grey, but had done him 

 no further injury than scratching his back through 

 the skin ; perhaps the beast had been scared by the 

 rheims, or, on discovering his spare condition, had 

 preferred the buffalo." 



" Owing to the tawny colour with which Xature 

 has endowed the lion," Gordon Gumming goes on 

 to say, " he is perfectly invisible in the dark, and 

 although I have often heard them lapping water 

 under my very nose, not twenty yards from me, 

 1 could not possibly make out so much as the out- 

 line of their forms .... 



" One thing conspicuous about them is their eyes, 

 which, on a dark night, glow like two balls of fire. 



" And when a thirsty lion comes to the water," 

 he further tells us, " he stretches out his massive 

 arms, lies down on his breast to drink, and makes 

 a loud lapping noise in drinking, not to be mistaken. 

 He continues lapping up the water for a long while, 

 and four or five times during the proceeding, he 

 pauses for half a minute as if to take breath." 



Further on he remarks, " I remember a fact con- 

 nected with the lion's hour of drinking peculiar to 

 themselves they seemed unwilling to visit the foun- 

 tain with good moonlight. Thus, when the moon 

 rose early, the lions deferred their hour of watering 



