HINTS ON EAST AFRICAN STALKING, ETC. 191 



four beasts suddenly raise their heads and stare hard up wind, 

 evidently on the alert. At first I could not see anything to 

 alarm them, and felt quite sure that they had not got a taint of 

 my wind. On getting into a sitting position behind the bush, 

 I saw a dark object in the grass dead to windward of the elands, 

 and about the same distance from them as I was. My first 

 idea was that it was a man, and I concluded that the fellow 

 must be an idiot to attempt to stalk down wind, when I 

 suddenly got a better view, and with the aid of my binoculars 

 made out a lion and lioness, and saw that they were actually 

 on the same business as myself. Wishing to see the result, I sat 

 still and watched them, and could just manage to follow their 

 movements, though I could only distinguish a small piece of 

 the dark mane of the lion above the grass as he crawled slowly 

 along. When the lions came to a tuft of rather longer grass they 

 both raised their heads for a second, but the elands apparently 

 took no notice of them, as they still stood perfectly motionless. 

 As the lions crept on very slowly they came to another tuft of 

 slightly taller grass, and the lion again raised his head, but this 

 time he was seen by the elands, which all turned round and 

 trotted off straight down wind. The lions then stood up, and 

 after watching the elands a short time lay down in the grass ; 

 but before I could crawl up to them and get a shot, they went 

 off for the bush on the other side of the plain. The elands 

 were then thoroughly on the alert and in a bad position for a 

 further stalk, and although I believe I could have got up to within 

 a couple of hundred yards of them, rather than risk a long shot, 

 and perhaps only frighten them away from the locality alto- 

 gether, I left them in peace for the fourth time. Returning on 

 the fifth morning very early, while skirting along outside 

 the edge of the bush, keeping a sharp look-out, I found them 

 in a grand position for a stalk, as they were not more than 400 

 yards from the edge of the bush on my side of the plain. The 

 bull was lying down, one cow stood close by him, evidently on 

 the look-out, whilst the other two were quietly feeding. Enter- 

 ing the bush, I skirted along inside the edge until I was just 



