52 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
That night, half a mile from the waggons, from dark to dawn 
a fight was going on. The air rang again and again with the 
short snapping bark of attacking lions and the grunting snorts 
of buffaloes on the defensive ; and, as soon as it was day, we 
went to the field of battle. None of the combatants were to 
be seen, but the whole story was clearly told by the trampled 
ground. A herd of 40 or 50 buffaloes had evidently been 
attacked by a number of lions—the Kafirs said nine, from 
Death of Superior 
the spoor—but the ground was so torn and trampled I could 
not pretend to count. They had taken up a position in 
front of a very dense patch of thorns, on a curve, and shifted 
backwards and forwards as their flanks were threatened ; the 
bulls and cows had come to the front, the calves had been 
placed in the rear, and they had held their own throughout 
the night without the loss of a single calf! The lions I had 
seen in the afternoon were probably the baffled marauders. 
We had been unsuccessful up to this time in killing buffaloes 
. 
