OF THE OLD WORLD. 451 



sound of his voice, and after a good deal of scram- 

 bling through the wood we got to another small 

 plain, where we waited until we heard him roar. 

 There was a continual barking of dogs and lowing 

 of cattle from the Arab douars, and at times we 

 heard the distant discharge of firearms. I noticed 

 the lion roared immediately after a donkey brayed 

 or a bull made a louder noise than usual. We 

 listened attentively for the roar, and then made our 

 way as quietly as possible towards the spot from 

 whence we imagined it to proceed. At last we 

 came pretty near, as his breathing and grunting 

 were distinctly heard, and the lioness was moaning 

 in a rather higher key. A dense wood was before 

 us, and they seemed about fifty paces distant. I 

 put fresh caps on my rifle, slung my gun over 

 my left shoulder, and crept forward as noiselessly 

 as possible to the place where I thought the lions 

 were lying. Their grunting seemed to proceed from 

 behind a large bush some ten paces distant, and 



once both Mr B and myself thought we could 



perceive a pair of eyes. I stole forward, making as 

 little noise as possible, but could perceive nothing. 

 I dropped my rifle into the hollow of my arm and 

 picked up a large stone, which I threw into the bush, 

 where I was pretty certain he was, fully expecting 

 him to bound out and give one of us a shot. 



The stone fell with a crash in the bush ; a low 

 growl and a rustling were heard, but nothing ap 

 peared, and, after waiting about a quarter of an 



