234 LARGE GAME. chap. v. 



where what little breeze might blow during the mid-day 

 heat would reach them. It seemed possible, by crawling 

 through the waist-high grass, to reach the nearest unseen, 

 and as I like to have my shot to myself, I told the hunter 

 to crawl on and get within range of the next troop, and 

 then to wait until I fired, when he would either have a 

 chance at them when they stood up, or at those disturbed 

 by me, which would probably try to join the others ; and, 

 to give him ample time to get into position, I remained 

 where I was for some minutes. On commencing my stalk 

 I crawled through the grass for a quarter of an hour or so, 

 sometimes, when the ground seemed bare, wriggling for- 

 ward like a snake, but usually on my hands and knees ; 

 and the buffalo, though I could not see them, and dared 

 not raise my head to look, could not have been more than 

 forty yards off, when I came upon the great footprints of 

 a lion. 



The instinct of a hunter to read whatever the ground 

 can tell him made me follow the trail for several yards, 

 deeply pondering over the " sign " a3 it came under my 

 notice, and then to abruptly turn off at right angles, and 

 make for the higher ground. I had discovered three 

 things. Firstly, that the lion had been there within the 

 last few minutes ; this I knew by seeing a blade of green 

 grass that his huge paw had crushed, with the wet sap 

 upon it, as it could never have been under that blazing 

 sun had a longer time elapsed. Secondly, that he also was 

 stalking the buffalo ; this could be seen by the deep 

 impress of his fore-paws, showing that he had been 

 crouching, and therefore throwing more weight upon 

 them, and also from the fact of the buffalo remaining 



