178 THE LION. 



On proceeding a little further they were hailed 

 by another ' marker,' who told them that the brute 

 was crouched in a cluster of brambles, of very limited 

 extent, about twenty paces from the very tree in 

 which he himself was perched. 



" As the country was pretty open around the 

 thicket in question, the sportsmen were enabled to 

 reconnoitre it rather narrowly, and that without 

 taking the elephants into the very thick of it, which 

 was deemed unadvisable, as, had those animals come 

 directly upon the lion, they might have been scared 

 and rendered unmanageable. But the brute was 

 not perceptible. 



"From the cover being so limited in extent, it 

 appeared almost an impossibility that the lion could 

 be there, the rather, as the elephants, so remark- 

 able for their fine sense of smelling, did not seem at 

 all aware of his presence, and it was in consequence 

 imagined that the man must be mistaken. But as 

 he persisted in his story, it was determined to fire 

 a shot into the thicket, which was accordingly done, 

 though without any result. 



" When a lion, which has been wounded and hotly 

 pursued, has ' lain up,' or hidden himself, for a time, 

 his position is generally known either by his roaring, 

 panting, or hard breathing ; but in this instance 

 there were no indications of the kind, which, coupled 

 with the shot having failed of effect, confirmed their 

 previous impression, and they were, therefore, on 

 the point of moving off' elsewhere. 



" But as the { marker ' continued asseverating from 

 his tree that the beast was positively lying in the 

 very brake near to which they were standing, it 



