THE LION 29 



A friend of mine, once sat up over a lion " kill." He 

 had a shooting hole dug, of some three feet in depth, 

 and covered over with logs of wood and branches. Having 

 fallen asleep, he was suddenly awakened to the knowledge 

 that at least one lion was sitting actually on the top of his 

 hiding-place, within a few inches of his head ! He was 

 also somewhat disturbed at noticing that the weight of the 

 beast was gradually breaking down the edges of the pit, 

 so that the sand was running into it, and there seemed 

 no small possibility of the whole roof shortly giving 

 way. Luckily, the animal soon got up and walked 

 over to the " kill," but the moment my friend put his 

 head over the edge to try and get a shot, it returned 

 with a rush, growling savagely. So soon as the head 

 dropped out of sight, the lion went away ; but the same 

 thing happened on each occasion when the man showed 

 himself, so that he spent rather an anxious time. 



Ranger Duke, too, once spent a very bad night in the 

 Game Reserve. He had camped at sundown by the 

 bank of a small sand spruit, and had, as is our invariable 

 custom when travelling with transport animals, erected 

 a thorn fence within which he, his three natives, his horse, 

 and his four donkeys, were enclosed. It was a pitch 

 dark night, and presently a troop of lions came up the 

 spruit and laid determined siege to him. One or another 

 would every few minutes make a rush up to the " scherm " 

 and try to get at the animals, only retreating before the 

 shouts of the boys and the shots from the white man's 

 rifle. The fire had gone out, and there was no wood to 

 make a new one. The lions kept up an intermittent 

 grunting close around, as if in the hope of stampeding 

 the animals, which it took the united efforts of the whole 

 party to restrain ; it was, moreover, so intensely dark 

 that nothing whatever could be seen. This unpleasant 



