448 THE HUNTING GEOUNDS 



Whilst in this predicament I heard a crackling of 

 the brushwood, and a loud roar close to, and I saw 

 the dark outline of the lion scrambling up the op- 

 posite bank. I threw up my rifle and pulled -the 

 trigger, but the charge was wet, and the caps only 

 exploded. What would I then have given for a 

 breech-loader, when, had I even suspected the first 

 charge to be damp, I could have substituted a fresh 

 cartridge in two seconds. 



The noise of my fall must have alarmed the lion, 

 for I heard him no more that night. My face, 

 hands, and legs, were full of thorns, my clothes were 

 soaking wet through, my left wrist felt sprained^ 

 and all my bones ached with fever, so I groped 

 about for the bank of the ravine, against which 

 I leaned till morning, when I examined the 

 ground. 



Wednesday^ 24:th. — The lion's pugs were very 

 distinctly imprinted in the mud, and at one time he 

 had cleaned his claws against the trunk of a cork- 

 tree, not twenty yards from where I must have been 

 standing. I found my rifle-pit again, after some 

 trouble got my gun and waterproof-sheet, and re- 

 turned to the douar, where the Arabs made a bush- 

 fire, at which I dried my clothes. I then mounted 

 my horse and rode down to Ain Mokra, and, the 

 weather having cleared up, strolled along the edge of 

 the lake, and killed twelve and a half couple of snipe, 

 of which I lost four couple in the rushes for want of 

 a dog. Found two of the party had killed fifty- two 



