262 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



gemsbucks, springbucks, and hartebeests and the 

 Bushmen had told me that there were absolutely 

 no lions in the district, I had allowed my cattle, 

 donkeys, and horses to feed and lie loose at nights. 

 On this evening I was lying reading in the waggon 

 after having prepared the gemsbuck skins, when I 

 suddenly heard my troop of cattle (some thirty in 

 number, including cows) galloping. They must 

 have been feeding or lying down a few hundred 

 yards behind the waggon, when something startled 

 them and they came rushing towards the waggon 

 in a solid phalanx ; but on the driver and some of 

 the boys running towards them and shouting, they 

 halted close down to the edge of the pool. That 

 something had frightened them, there could be no 

 doubt, and as I have never known oxen show any 

 fear of hyaenas, I couldn't help thinking that, in 

 spite of what the Bushmen had said, there was a 

 lion about. I therefore had my oxen at once tied 

 up, and taking the lantern, called up some of the 

 Bushmen and went out to look for the rest of my 

 live stock. We soon found the two horses that had 

 been ridden that day and the donkeys, but of my 

 third horse, a very powerful stallion, we could find 

 no trace, though he had had his feed of maize at 

 sundown with the others. I went back to the 

 waggon, therefore, feeling very anxious about him. 



At daylight the next morning I saddled up my 

 best horse, and accompanied by some of the Bush- 

 men, rode round to the spot from which the oxen 

 had stampeded. The ground was very hard, as the 

 pool of water by which we were encamped was 

 situated in a limestone formation, and for some 

 time we could discover nothing ; but on riding back 

 along the waggon track for about a mile to sandy 

 ground, we there at once found the spoor of a lion, 

 or more probably a lioness, as the tracks looked 

 small. These tracks even the Bushmen were un- 



