2ft NATURAL HISTORY. 



Dos with me, all my efforts to dislodge him from his stronghold proved unavailing. Whilst still 

 lingering about the place, I came upon the carcase of a Gnu, on which a troop of Lions had, appa- 

 rently, been feasting not many minutes previously. Undoubtedly my somewhat dastardly friend had 



been one of the party." 



After such rude shocks as these to our faith in the African monarch s courage, it is positively 

 refreshing to come across instances where the Lion has shown himself capable of very great boldness, 

 Buch, for instance, as the following : 



" We were waked up suddenly by hearing one of the Oxen bellowing and the Dogs barking. 



LION AND LIONESS ATTACKING AN ELEPHANT. 



was moderately dark, and I seized Clifton's double rifle, and rushed out, not knowing where, when I 

 saw the driver perched on the top of a temporary hut, made of grass, about six feet high, roaring 

 lustily for a doppfc (cap). I scrambled up just as the poor Ox ceased his cries, and heard the Lions 

 growling and roaring on the top of him, not more than fourteen yards from where we were, but it was 

 too dark to see them. I fired, however, in the direction of the sound, and just above the body of the 

 Ox, which I could distinguish tolerably well, as it was a black one. Diza (the driver) followed my 

 example ; and, as the Lions did not take the least notice, I fired my second barrel, and was just pro- 

 ceeding to load my own gun, which Jack had brought me, when I was aware, for a single instant 

 only, that the Lion was coming ; and the same moment I was knocked half-a-dozen somersaults back- 

 wards off the hut, the brute striking me in the chest with his head. I gathered myself up in a second, 

 and made a dash at a fence just behind me, and scrambled through it, gun in hand, but the muzzle was 



