334 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



was in hopes that he might still be about, and thought that if 

 he would only be good enough to pay a visit to the settlement 

 whilst I was there, I might get a good chance of shooting him, 

 as the wet weather, I imagined, would make the ground suffi- 

 ciently soft to enable me to track him. Not content with 

 killing oxen and donkeys at some little distance from the 

 settlement, this lion had one night so frightened two valuable 

 horses belonging to Mr. Frank Johnson that they had rushed 

 at the door of their stable, and breaking the thongs with which 

 it was secured, broken out, and run up the hill, where they 

 were both killed within a few yards of a dwelling hut usually 

 occupied by Mr. Johnson, who was, however, absent at the 

 time. The carcase of the one horse was left entirely untouched, 

 I was informed, the animal having been killed by a bite at the 

 back of the head, the lion making his meal off his other 

 victim, which was possibly in better condition. 



My first question after my arrival at Hartley Hills was as 

 to whether this lion was still in the district, and I was much 

 disappointed to learn that nothing had been heard of him 

 lately. I found my old friend Mr. Graham just packing up 

 for a three days' trip into the country to the west of the 

 Umfuli river, where some rich gold reefs had been discovered, 

 on which he was anxious to report. That evening I had 

 dinner with Dr. Edgelow, and a long chat afterwards, and 

 as, when it was time to turn in, a drizzly rain was falling, I 

 resolved to take possession of Mr. Graham's hut for the night, 

 instead of going down to my waggon. As it wanted about 

 three days to full moon, it would have been a bright moon- 

 light night had the weather been fine, but as it was the sky 

 was thickly overcast with clouds. Before quitting Dr. Edgelow 

 I remarked to him what a beautiful night it was for a lion, 

 regarded, of course, from a lion's point of view, as these 

 animals are always most dangerous on dark, rainy nights. My 

 waggon, as I have said before, was standing just at the foot of 

 the rocks, the oxen being tied two and two in the yokes ; but 

 besides the working cattle I had a spare animal that always 



