ROUNDING-UP 



were in this position for about half an hour when we decided 

 we would take a look through the opening to see what was 

 doing. We had both got our faces at the opening and were 

 peering out when, quick as a flash, came a roar from the 

 lionesss, only six inches from our faces. It seems she had 

 been on a tour of inspection and happened to be scrutiniz- 

 ing the opening at the very moment we decided to satisfy 

 our curiosity by peeping out. Jack, who had his gun-barrel 

 in the opening, pulled the trigger, and after the roar of the 

 gun all was quiet. We had to wait until daylight before we 

 could find out the result of that shot. 



On coming out of the boma at dawn we found blood spoor, 

 showing that the bullet had hit its mark, but no sign of the 

 beast. We tracked her where she had gone into the thick 

 bush, and then Outram and Lloyd came up and we decided to 

 go in after her. We went single file through the thick stuff, 

 with our guns ready, as we did not know whether she was 

 ten feet or three-quarters of a mile away, and had to be 

 ready for anything. We were just next to a very thick bush 

 when Outram, who was behind me, yelled, "Look out, here 

 she comes!" And not ten feet away we heard the terrible 

 roar a lion gives preliminary to the spring, and just had time 

 to jump back and turn, ready to fire. She was so close to us 

 that had she made a spring she would have inevitably got 

 one of us. Luckily for us, however, she did not spring, the 

 reason being that Jack's shot during the night had ripped the 

 muscles in her back so that she was half paralyzed. She had 

 evidently been waiting for us to get within springing distance 

 of her before letting us know of her whereabouts. Not a 

 sound did she make until that terrific roar. We got out of the 

 thick bush as quickly as possible, into a small open space, 

 from where we could peer into the bush where the lioness was. 

 A shot as she lay there finished her. 



I suppose the variety to be got in the country we hunted 

 was about the same as what you found. It is possible to get 

 zebras, kongoni, Grants, impala, Tommies, wildebeests, ro- 

 bertsi, giraffes, topi, elands, waterbucks, bushbucks, klip- 

 springers, mountain-ree^-bucks, rhinoceroses, roan antelopes, 



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