278 LARGE GAME. chap. v. 



if they had looked round, and then I rushed off after my 

 Kaffir to load. The position they were in was good, and 

 I might have killed one to a certainty, if not both, but 

 when I had succeeded in getting him down from the top 

 of a big tree and went back, they had gone. I suppose 

 they must have got our wind. No doubt they had been 

 hunting all night, and had been down to the river to 

 drink preparatory to going to bed. 



I once had the pleasure of, unobserved myself, watch- 

 ing a lion family feeding. I was encamped on the Black 

 Umfolosi in Zululand, and towards evening, expecting a 

 friend, I went out to meet him, and, instead of taking a 

 gun, which I should have done ninety-nine times out of 

 a hundred, I only took up one of the Kaffirs' spears, 

 not intending to go beyond a couple of hundred yards. 

 However, not meeting my friend, I went on, and at about 

 half a mile from camp I saw a herd of zebra galloping 

 across me, and when they were nearly two hundred yards 

 off, I saw a yellow body flash towards the leader, and 

 saw him fall beneath the lion's weight. There was a 

 tall tree about sixty yards from the place, and anxious 

 to see what went on, I stalked up to it, while the 

 lion was still too much occupied to look about him, and 

 climbed up. He had by this time quite killed the beauti- 

 fully-striped animal, but instead of proceeding to eat it, 

 he got up and roared vigorously, until there was an 

 answer, and in a few minutes a lioness, accompanied by 

 four whelps, came trotting up from the same direction as 

 the zebra, which no doubt she had been to drive towards 

 her husband. They formed a fine picture as they all stood 

 round the carcase, the whelps tearing and biting at it, but 



