338 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



the footprints left but little trace. Suffice it to say that we 

 followed the tracks for over three hours, and finally lost them 

 in stony ground, and could not manage to pick them up again. 

 For another hour I rode about examining all the patches of bush 

 in the neighbourhood, as I felt sure the lion was somewhere near 

 at hand, waiting for night, to return to the carcase of the ox he 

 had killed. However, as I could not discover his whereabouts 

 or find any further trace of him, I was obliged to give up the 

 pursuit and returned to camp, resolved to sit up and watch 

 the carcase that night. 



On again reaching the settlement, Mr. Somerville, who was 

 in charge of Mr. Johnson's compound, informed me that the 

 lion had walked past his cattle kraal, in which there were a 

 few goats, sheep, and calves, and had killed one of the goats 

 by putting his paw between the poles of which the enclosure 

 was made. Seizing the animal by the throat, which he had 

 torn open, the lion had severed the jugular vein, so that the 

 beast bled to death. This had evidently been done before 

 my ox was killed, and apparently out of sheer exuberance of 

 spirits, as no attempt had been made to pull the carcase out 

 of the kraal by forcing two of the poles forming the palisade 

 apart from one another. 



After breakfast, I went and examined the ground round 

 the dead ox, with a view to choosing a position from which 

 to watch for the lion. The carcase was lying with its back 

 on the edge of the waggon-road, the hind quarters being 

 nearest to my camp. A small tree was growing close to the 

 extended legs of the dead ox, and actually within six feet of 

 either the fore or hind feet. This tree branched into two main 

 stems at about two feet from the ground, and as a rifle pro- 

 truded between them would be within three yards of any part 

 of the carcase, I resolved to make a small shelter behind its 

 trunk. I wished to be as near as possible to the carcase, 

 because, on a former occasion, I had lain for several hours one 

 night within ten yards of a dead ox at which lions were feeding 

 without being able to see anything of them, and as they left 



