FURTHER ADVENTURES WITH LIONS 



apparently been torn from its chain by a trapped animal 

 whose track led into the thorny thicket. I followed it 

 and traced it to a powerful lion who had penetrated 

 about three thousand feet into the thicket. I meant to 

 snap my camera at him, but had to drop it and take up 

 miy rifle to ward off the animal who, in spite of the 

 heavy iron-trap clinging to his paw, attacked me vigor- 

 ously. A well-aimed shot stretched him to the ground 

 almost at my feet. The next night we trapped two more 

 lions; after that the traps remained empty. I have 

 reason to believe that the three lions thus caught were 

 the same with which I had had that memorable tete-a- 

 tete on the bank of the dry river-bed. 



Never to be forgotten by me are the hours which I 

 spent in 1899 following the track of fourteen lions. I had 

 never before met such a number of lions in one troop. 

 The impressions made by the mighty paws of the animals 

 were clearly defined in the fine dust which covered the 

 dry ground of the steppe, an expressive writing for the 

 well-trained eye of the hunter. There is a strange fas- 

 cination in following the traces of wild beasts into the. 

 vastnesses of the steppe ; in the case of my tracking the 

 fourteen lions this eagerness was alloyed with a goodly 

 amount of anxiety. One's imagination loves to picture 

 the possible situations which the pursuit of the beasts 

 may bring about. So did mine on that occasion. 

 Having reached the top of a hill, I saw the lions rest- 

 ing among the rocks in the shade of some locust-trees. 



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