CARNARIA. CARNIVORA. 81 



" The scene was now magnificently grand and 

 exciting. Broad sheets of lightning flashed from 

 every part of the heavens ; heavy drops were falling, 

 and a general gloomy mist half veiled the hills, but 

 unheeded, for every eye was fixed on one spot, 

 where the noble savage lay facing us with a stern 

 countenance ; her wide, round, yellow eyes, w r ith 

 small jet black pupils glaring fiercely, and her massy 

 forepaws half raising from the turf her milk-white 

 chest and throat. She lashed the ground on either 

 side alternately with her tail, which swung over her 

 back in regular pendulum-like vibrations, and her 

 formidable jaws opening with a grim yawn, seemed 

 to emit from time to time hollow half suppressed 

 roars, which, however, were inaudible from the now 

 uninterrupted rattle of the thunder. Her com- 

 panion lay about twenty paces behind her. Major 

 C. begged us to let him have a first shot at her, 

 to try a new rifle he had brought as his second gun, 

 and we halted while he fired at about thirty-five 

 paces ; but his ball fell three yards short, and, to 

 our surprise, was quite unnoticed by the Lioness, 

 who still lay as we again advanced. Suddenly the 

 two dogs made a violent rush forward, and Captain 

 A., alarmed for his favourite, exclaimed, 'Let us 

 fire now.' 



" He and Mr. B. fired and wounded her ; in- 

 stantaneously bounding on her feet, she was coming 

 in with a heavy lumbering gallop, when a volley 

 of four shots sent her rolling over head foremost ; 

 and the dogs running in began to lay hold and bite 



E 5 



