i io WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



to where the day before the two lions' tracks met. 

 Here I had a glimpse of the lion I was following. 

 He did not suspect my presence. And as I 

 watched he made an unsuccessful rush among 

 the sheep. Failing, he left them standing alert 

 on cliffs, and descended the slope with a series of 

 plunges, evidently making for the woods. I did 

 not follow. 



As this lion's tracks were about thirty-six 

 hours old when I first encountered them down in 

 the gulch, and fully twelve hours older on the 

 ridge where the lion had crossed his former trail, 

 and as I had followed them for about thirty-six 

 hours, I had record of nearly three days of lion 

 life. During this time his entire food had been 

 just one grouse. 



After this first lion had galloped off down 

 the slope I searched for the tracks of the lion 

 following me. She had found my trail early 

 the day before, and had been on my trail for 

 perhaps fifteen miles and for nearly twenty hours. 



I back-tracked along her trail to see what 

 she had been doing the day before. In a stretch 

 of less than two miles and perhaps in less than a 

 day's time she had killed three or four ptarmigan 

 and three sheep. The sheep had been caught 

 while wallowing through a stretch of deep, half- 

 crusted snow and three of eight killed. 



Two of these sheep were not touched and the 



