With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



camp have been preyed upon by lions in spite of their 

 having their camp-fires lit though possibly gone down 

 somewhat and only smouldering while my own camp 

 was left unmolested. 



Lions have, however, sometimes approached within 

 three or four paces of my camp, and even of my own 

 tent. One dark nig-ht a large male lion nearly brushed 

 against my tent on its way down to the stream by which 

 it stood. He could have got to the water, either to the 

 right or to the left, without finding any obstacle in his 

 path. After drinking he returned the same way to the 

 velt, and some twenty paces from my tent he stopped 

 to inspect carefully a large bone, whitened by the sun, 

 which had been lying there some time. This was 

 ascertained next morning from his tracks. I set out 

 after him next morning, but had to break off my pursuit 

 after about four hours of it, as he had turned aside on 

 to a stony part of the velt, where his tracks could not 

 be discerned. 



The same indifference is shown by lions during the 

 night-shoots. They pay no attention to the hunter 

 waiting inside the thorn-bush when they are making for 

 the ass or steer tied up as a bait for them three or four 

 paces off, and they can be shot therefore quite easily. 

 From my own observations made at night time, while 

 I was engaged in photographing the animals the lion 

 does not make a great spring upon his prey, but creeps 

 up towards it, stretching out its mighty body, and then 

 is upon it like a lightning flash and kills it with a bite 

 on the back of the neck. 



352 



