The Glade alive with Lions. i6i 



after about a quarter of an hour's absence re- 

 joined me, and said he couhl see nothing, but 

 thouo-ht we had better turn to our left towards 

 the north, as in the direction which we were 

 taking there was nothing but thick bush, whereas 

 towards the north the veklt was much more open. 

 In a few minutes I almost wished that we had 

 stuck to our orio'inal direction. 



We were riding along through a small open 

 glade covered with high grass, Lee a few yards 

 ahead of me, when I suddenly saw him turn 

 round, cry out something to me, and point with 

 his linger ahead. I looked, and saw lolloping 

 along through and over the grass, about forty 

 yards off, a yellow animal about as big as a 

 small bullock. It flashed across me that it was 

 a lion, the last thing in the world that I was 

 thinkino' of. I was o-oino- to dismount and take 

 aim, but Lee called out in succession five or six 

 times, " Look, look ! " at the same time pointing 

 with his finger in difterent directions in front. 

 I saw to my astonishment, and rather to my 

 dismay, that the glade appeared to be alive with 

 lions. There they were trooping and trotting 

 along ahead of us like a lot of enormous dogs, 

 great yellow objects, ofiering such a sight as I 

 had never dreamed of. Lee turned to me and 

 said, " What will you do ? " I said, " I suppose 

 we must go after them," thinking all the time 

 that I was making a very foolish answer. This I 

 am the more convinced of now, for Lee told me 

 afterwards that many old hunters in South Africa 



M 



