20 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



they are all alertness. I once had the opportunity of 

 watching from very close quarters a couple of black- 

 maned lions approach a herd of impala, which were 

 gazing and snorting at something in the opposite direc- 

 tion. The two lions walked slowly and majestically 

 towards them, their heads held high, looking more 

 like the noble beasts of story than any I ever saw before 

 or since. There was no attempt at concealment from 

 the time they emerged from the ravine twenty yards 

 away, where they had been lying. Possibly they 

 recognized that the prey was within their grasp, at any 

 rate they simply walked straight towards it without hurry 

 or noise. This was in the heat of the day, and' no doubt 

 lions, when hungry, do travel on right through the 

 hours of daylight with only occasional short rests. In 

 fact, it has fallen to the lot of all the Reserve staff at 

 various times to follow the fresh tracks of lions almost 

 from daylight to dark without once coming up with them. 

 I recollect one day my old horse " Pompey," getting 

 tired of standing alone with the reins over his head, took 

 a short cut through the bush for home. He was followed 

 by a couple of natives, whom he would not allow to get 

 nearer than a hundred yards or so. Suddenly two 

 lions made a rush at him, and he only just escaped by 

 making a tremendous swerve. These animals, by their 

 tracks, had been on the move, though it was three o'clock 

 in the afternoon and very hot. 



Althcugh lions thus frequently hunt throughout the 

 day when hungry, and although, as the instances that 

 have been quoted show, they may then, under certain 

 circumstances, prove dangerous to man, as a rule they 

 will give way before him. One of the rangers, while 

 following lion tracks, once walked right into the middle 

 of five while they were lying sound asleep in some long 



