AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



It was a most magnificent spectacle, and we could 

 enjoy it unhurried by the feeling that we were losing 

 opportunities. At that range it would be silly to 

 open fire. If we had descended to the canon in 

 order to follow them out the other side, they would 

 merely have trotted away. Our only chance was 

 to wait until they had disappeared from sight, and 

 then to attempt a wide circle in order to catch them 

 from the flank. In the meantime we had merely 

 to sit still. 



Therefore we stared through our glasses and en- 

 joyed to the full this most unusual sight. There 

 were four cubs about as big as setter dogs; four full- 

 grown but immature youngsters; four lionesses, and 

 three male lions. They kept their spaced, single 

 file formation for two thirds the ascent of the hill — 

 probably the nature of the ground forced them to 

 it — and then gradually drew together. Near the 

 top, but still below the summit, they entered a 

 jumble of boulders and stopped. We could make 

 out several of them lying down. One fine old yellow 

 fellow stretched himself comfortably atop a flat 

 rock, in the position of a bronze lion on a pedestal. 



We waited twenty minutes to make sure they were 

 not going to move. Then, leaving all our men 

 except the gunbearers under the tree, we slipped 

 back until out of sight, and began to execute our 



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