THE LION IN. SOUTH AFRICA 317 
ace I not been well mounted, I should never have 
seen him again. As it was I galloped after him, and when he 
found that my horse was gaining on him, he stopped and stood 
| at bay, when I shot him. In parts of the country where they 
'. have been but little disturbed, lions will only walk slowly away 
when unexpectedly encountered in the daytime, often turning 
round and gazing fixedly at the intruder, and sometimes growl- 
-ing savagely and twitching their tails angrily the while. A 
lioness with cubs, or a savage lion feeding at a carcase, will 
occasionally come rushing forwards when disturbed, with every 
demonstration of anger, and an apparent determination to 
charge home. But in the great majority of even these excep- 
tional cases such a demeanour would be nothing more than a 
demenstration, only made in order to frighten the intruder 
away ; and if the man were to stand his ground, the lion would 
retreat. I remember an instance of this. Two friends of 
mine having shot some elephants on a Saturday, resolved to 
take a rest on the following day. Early on the Sunday morn- 
‘ing some of their Kafirs having gone up to cut some meat from 
the carcase of one of the elephants, returned with the news that 
' there was a lion there that would not let them come near it. 
Wood and Clarkson thereupon at once took their heavy old 
muzzle-loading elephant guns, the only weapons they possessed, 
and went to investigate. As they approached the carcase, 
Clarkson told me they could see nothing of the intruder and 
_ thought he had decamped, but when they were still some 
_ hundred and fifty yards distant, a magnificent dark-maned lion 
_ suddenly appeared from behind the dead elephant, and came 
_ fushing towards them, holding his head low between his 
shoulders, twitching his tail from side to side and growling 
_ ~ savagely, and looking as if he meant to charge home. Heonly 
"came on for about fifty yards however, and then stood growl- 
ing, and, as my friends said, looked grand in his fury. 
_ Clarkson had dropped on his knee to get a steadier shot 
with his heavy elephant gun, but Wood, who was an old and 
___ very experienced hunter, said, ‘ Don’t fire, Matt ; let him come 
