OF THE OLD WORLD. 445 



Had I been alone I might, perhaps, have got a shot, 

 for the place where they liad been sleeping after 

 their feast was warm with the heat of their bodies 

 when I arrived, and unmistakable signs showed they 

 had been there very lately ; but the noise made by 

 the Arabs, who would talk among themselves, in 

 spite of my remonstrance, scared them away. 



I tracked them through dense wood for a short 

 distance, when my olfactories informed me that a 

 putrid carcass was not far off, and, guided by the 

 smell, I made my way through the underwood, and 

 came across the dead body of a young lion, some- 

 thing more than a year old. It bore the marks (as a 

 coroner would say) of a violent death, for the neck, 

 chest, and belly were gashed and ripped open as if 

 with a knife. On examining the ground round 

 about, I found the footprints of a large boar, who 

 had evidently intruded into the lair and killed " the 

 youthful scion of the Eoyal House," though not 

 without a violent struggle, for the grass and herbage 

 was trodden down, and bore the marks of a severe 

 fight. I cut off the forelock and some claws, and 

 made the Arabs cut off the head. It was too far 

 gone to skin. 



I then retui-ned to the head of the ravine, where 

 there were several old marks of the lions having 

 frequently passed, and constructed a kind of rifle-pit, 

 which I concealed with branches of trees, at a point 

 which commanded two paths, on both of which I 

 could perceive lion-pugs. Here I remained all 



