338 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
the footprints left but little trace. Suffice it to say that we 
followed the tracks for over three hours, and finally lost them. 
in stony ground, and could not manage to pick them up again. 
For another hour I rode about examining all the patches of bush 
in the neighbourhood, as I felt sure the lion was somewhere near 
at hand, waiting for night, to return to the carcase of the ox he 
had killed. However, as I could not discover his whereabouts 
or find any further trace of him, I was obliged to give up the 
pursuit and returned to camp, resolved to sit up and watch 
the carcase that night. 
On again reaching the settlement, Mr. Somerville, who was 
in charge of Mr. Johnson’s compound, informed me that the 
lion had walked past his cattle kraal, in which there were a 
few goats, sheep, and calves, and had killed one of the goats 
by putting his paw between the poles of which the enclosure 
was made. Seizing the animal by the throat, which he had 
torn open, the lion had severed the jugular vein, so that the 
beast bled to death. This had evidently been done before 
my ox was killed, and apparently out of sheer exuberance of 
spirits, as no attempt had been made to pull the carcase out 
of the kraal by forcing two of the poles forming the palisade 
apart from one another, 
After breakfast, I went and examined the ground round 
the dead ox, with a view to choosing a position from which 
to watch for the lion. The carcase was lying with its back — 
on the edge of the waggon-road, the hind quarters being 
nearest to my camp. A small tree was growing close to the 
extended legs of the dead ox, and actually within six feet of 
either the fore or hind feet. This tree branched intotwomain — 
stems at about two feet from the ground, and as a rifle pro- — 
truded between them would be within three yards of any part — 
of the carcase, I resolved to make a small shelter behind its — 
trunk. I wished to be as near as possible to the carcase, — 
because, on a former occasion, I had lain for several hours one — 
night within ten yards of a dead ox at which lions were feeding — 
without being able to see anything of them, and as they left — 
s 3 
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