THE LION. 11 



Carrying off a buffalo Mode of attack. 



He likewise leaped over a broad ditch with her 

 without the least apparent difficulty. The fol- 

 lowing account of a display of strength, superior 

 even to the above example, was given to Dr. 

 Sparrman by two respectable persons belonging 

 to the colony, on whose veracity he could rely. 



" Being on a hunting party, near Bosjesman's 

 River, with several Hottentots, they perceived a 

 lion dragging a buffalo from a plain to a wood 

 upon a neighbouring hill. They, however, soon 

 forced him to quit his prey, in order to make 

 prize of it themselves ; and found that this crea- 

 ture had had the sagacity to take out the large 

 and cumbersome entrails of the Buffalo, the more 

 easily to carry off the remainder of the carcase. 

 The ferocious animal as soon as he saw, from the 

 skirts of the wood, that the Hottentots had be- 

 gun to carry off the flesh to the waggon, fre- 

 quently peeped out upon them, and that proba- 

 bly with no small degree of mortification. 



" The strength of the lion, however, is said not 

 to be sufficient alone to overcome an animal so 

 large and so powerful as the buffalo ; but in order 

 to make it his prey, this fierce creature is obliged 

 to have recourse both to agility and stratagem. 

 Stealing unawares on the buffalo, he fastens with 

 both his paws on the nostrils and mouth of the 

 beast, and continues squeezing them close toge- 

 ther, till at length the poor animal is strangled, 

 exhausted, and expires. It was said, that one of 

 the colonists had witnessed a circumstance of 

 B 2 



