SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 91 



paws on the carcase, and roared and growled their paean of 

 victory. Frank had come up ; we were too near to speak, 

 but I motioned him to take the lion on the left, while I 

 covered the middle one. We fired together ; his fell dead 

 with a broken back, filling its mouth with bush as it rolled 

 over : my shot was rather a slanting one, went in through 

 the back ribs, and out somewhere forward ; at all events, 

 it was not fatal on the spot, for the lion sprang over the 

 buffalo without stopping to inquire where it came from ; the 

 third never moved, but kept on shaking the dead bull till I 

 had loaded again and killed him. I wish we could have 

 picked up No. 2, but the evening was closing in too rapidly 

 to allow us to track him any great distance, and we did not 

 therefore bring him to bag, as we must under other circum- 

 stances have done, for he was wounded to his death. It was my 

 clumsy first shot that was in fault, and Frank's want of a second 

 barrel. When a lion has fast hold of his prey with his mouth, 

 his eyes are nearly closed, and you may get quite close to 

 him, the folds of the skin of the face being driven up by 

 the constriction of the muscles of the jaws against the lower 

 lids : the Kafirs all recognise this fact. 1 Vardon was a very 

 deliberate shot, and used to take me to task for snapping too 

 much. Rut our weapons were different, his a finely-sighted 

 rifle, mine a very open-sighted smooth-bore. 



He gave me quite a jobation one day, in the presence of a 

 living lion, not ten yards from us, when he delivered his text. 

 It happened on this wise. The waggons were halted for the 

 night, on the bank of a deep ' nullah.' There were no elephants 

 to alarm in the neighbourhood, so I strolled out on the chance 

 of a shot. It was late in the afternoon, 4 P.M., and I could 

 hear Vardon talking to his men two hundred yards off, as 

 he came back to camp. Whether roused by his voice, or by 



1 Mr. WolPs sketch does not quite bear out this statement ; when he 

 was drawing it I forgot to mention the peculiarity. I am, however, able 

 to indicate it in the illustration, thanks to the courtesy of Mr. Caterson 

 Smith, who altered the plate in accordance with my suggestion. 



