and more Lion* 65 



bok " said, " Well Adrian, how often did the 

 Englishman miss ? " Then old Willem and his friends 

 had a good laugh at my expense, but when sometime 

 later the boys brought in the game and he heard the 

 truth, he seemed quite disappointed, but quite good 

 natured over it. He was a fine old sportsman him- 

 self. While we were having supper in Bronkhorst's 

 tent about 9 a.m., we heard a bellowing of cattle 

 and a crashing of the bushes which formed the 

 kraal. Then a general stampede of all the cattle in 

 the big kraal (about 500 of Bronkhorst's and mine 

 together), and the silly creatures bolted in a mass. 

 There was a lull, then we heard another cow 

 bellow, then another stampede, then another bellow, 

 further and further away. At daylight next 

 morning we found one cow dead in the kraal, 

 and eleven of poor Bronkhorst's cows and heifers 

 lying dead at short distances apart, also a 

 large front ox of mine. The lion had eaten 

 the breast of the ox and the udder of the 

 cow and then walked off. Next evening old 

 Willem put up a gun trap with an old smooth- 

 bore loaded with slugs, tying a tempting heifer 

 (one of those the lion had killed), in front of it. 

 About the same time, while at supper, we heard a 

 loud report, a sort of roar and gurgle and then quiet. 

 One fellow, who was a notorious coward, proposed 

 we should go in the dark and see if the lion was 

 dead. We asked him to lead the way but he had 

 several reasons for not doing so. Next morning, we 

 found a big maned lion dead, with one slug hole just 

 over the eye. I gave the head to John Robert Lys, 

 who had it over the door of his office in Pretoria for 

 years. This little episode made our cattle skittish, 

 and Bronkhorst told me on my return that they had 

 stampeded once or twice since. On my return, 

 Philip Minnaar and his wife accompanied me from 



