3o8 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



Quickly swerving to the leit, but without stopping, 

 I almost immediately put a large ant-heap between 

 us, and then ran to it at my utmost speed. This 

 ant-heap was quite twenty feet in diameter at the 

 base, and ten or twelve feet in height. I quickly 

 climbed half-way up it and then looked round the 

 side, and saw that the single lion was still standing 

 watching the other two, which were at that moment 

 just entering the patch of long grass of which I have 

 already spoken. 



I now edged myselt in a sitting position to the 

 side of the ant-heap nearest the lion and prepared 

 for a shot. He was facing half away from me and 

 something more than two hundred yards off; but 

 there was not so much as a blade of grass in the 

 shape of cover on the level burnt plain between 

 us, and had I attempted to get nearer to him he 

 would certainly have seen me at once and then 

 trotted after his companions. So, steadying myself 

 and taking a careful aim with the 2ooyarcls' sight, 

 I fired. My bullet must have passed close beneath 

 the brute's chest I think behind his forelegs 

 as I saw it knock up the dust just beyond him. 

 He at once sprang to the spot where the bullet 

 struck the ground and again stood still, facing now 

 exactly away from me, without apparently having 

 taken any notice of the report of my rifle- a 450- 

 bore single-barrelled Gibbs-Metford. 



Extracting the empty cartridge and pushing a 

 fresh one into the breech, as silently and quickly 

 as possible, I fired again, this time taking a fuller 

 sight and aiming for the centre of the lion's some- 

 what narrow hind-quarters. The dull thud which 

 answered the report of the rifle assured me that I 

 had hit him, but I never saw a lion before make 

 so little fuss about a wound. He gave one spring 

 forwards, accompanied by a loud growl, and then 

 stood still again. But only for a moment. Then 



