Three Lions in one Morning 271 



morning ! Impossible ! " Halloo ! Come along : 

 there is something over there ! " I cry to my men, 

 who come up and gaze at the object. Is it a harte- 

 beest or a reedbuck ? Let us go see ! We are quite 

 certain as to what it is when forty yards away : it is 

 the lion, dead, and already swollen. 



What put us off the track was the fact that we 

 could not see its mane, which, it may be said in 

 parenthesis, was a very fine one. My bullet passed 

 through the lungs and touched the heart, splitting in 

 two places. I knew that I had missed the shoulder- 

 blades, since the lion continued to run. When it 

 sprang forward I really did think it was badly 

 wounded, but, seeing it disappear at a gallop, I 

 should not have believed it so seriously wounded as 

 it was. 



Three lions in one morning ! I was so happy that 

 everybody in camp received a triple present. The 

 work of photographing and skinning was repeated. 

 What a pity I hurried on the two former occasions ! 

 If I had waited until noon I should have been able to 

 photograph my three lions together, and myself with 

 them. But I could not foresee that I should have 

 such luck that day ; and animals decompose so quickly, 

 especially felines, that you cannot be too expeditious 

 in curing their skins. It is probable that I might 

 return to the bush for twenty years more without 

 having such a windfall. What is so unusual is not 

 having met four lions, but having been able calmly 

 to kill three, one after the other, as soon as they 

 appeared. 



