CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 255 



must be understood, consisted of seventeen horsemen, Mulattoes and Hottentots, and a number of 

 powerful hounds : 



"The Hottentots traced the lion on foot, discovering his spoor, or track, with surprising dex- 

 terity, and found him in a large thicket about a mile distant. The dogs failed to dislodge him ; 

 the Mulattoes rode round the jungle and fired into it, but without effect. At last three Scotch- 

 men determined to march in, provided the Mulattoes would support their fire. Regardless of the 

 warnings of more prudent men, they went in, and, as they thought, found the lion crouched 

 among the roots of a large evergreen bush, glaring at them from under the foliage. They fired 

 and struck, not the lion, but a great block of sand-stone, which they had mistaken for him ; but 

 beyond which he was actually lying. With a furious growl he bolted from the bush ; the Mulat- 

 toes fled, helter-skelter, leaving the Scots with empty guns, tumbling over each other in their 

 haste to escape. In a twinkling he was upon them, with one stroke of his paw dashed John 

 Rennie to the ground, and with one foot upon him, looked round upon his assailants in conscious 

 power and pride, and with the most noble and imposing port that could be conceived. It was 

 the most magnificent thing I ever witnessed ; but the danger of our friends was too great to 

 enjoy the picture. We expected every minute to see one or more of them torn 4o pieces ; and 

 yet in their position, one lying under the lion's paw T , and the others scrambling toward us, we 

 oared not fire. Fortunately, however, the lion, after steadily surveying us, turned calmly away, 

 drove off the hounds with his heels, as if they had been rats, and bounded over the adjoining 

 thicket like a cat, clearing bushes twelve or fifteen feet high, as if they had been tufts of grass. 



"Our comrade had sustained no other injury than a scratch upon the back and a severe bruise 

 and we renewed the chase. We found the enemy standing at bav under a mimosa-tree. The 

 dogs barked round him, but w T ere afraid to approach ; for he growled fiercely, and brandished his 

 tail in a manner that showed that he meditated mischief. The-Hottentots, by taking a circuit, 

 reached a precipice above him, and another party of us occupied a position on the other side of the 

 glen, so that the lion was between two fires ; he became confused ; we battered away at him, and 

 he fell, pierced w T ith many wounds. He appeared to be full grown, and six years old, measuring 

 eleven feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. His fore-leg, below the knee, was so thick that 

 I could not span it with both hands ; his head was almost as large as that of an ordinary ox. 

 His flesh, which I had the curiosity to taste, resembled very white coarse beef, and was insipid 

 rather than disagreeable." 



It would be easy to fill a volume with similar accounts. Mr. Livingstone, whose recent travels 

 in Southeastern Africa, have excited such general interest, seems to think the lion a more cowardly 

 and much less dangerous animal than he has been reported to be ; his work, however, furnishes 

 us with the following excitino- incident : 



" The Bakatla of the village Mabotsa were much troubled by lions, which leaped into the cattle- 

 pens by night, and destroyed their cows. They even attacked the herds in open day. This was 

 %o unusual an occurrence that the people believed that they were .bewitched — ' given,' as they 

 ^aid, ' into the power of the lions by a neighboring tribe.' They went once to attack the ani- 

 mals, but, being rather a cowardly people compared to Bechuanas in general on such occasions, 

 :hey returned without killing any. 



" It is well known that if one of a troop of lions is killed, the others take the hint and leave that 



)art of the country. So, the next time the herds were attacked, I went with the people, in order 



o encourage them to rid themselves of the annoyance by destroying one of the marauders. T\ e 



und the lions on a small hill about a quarter of a mile in length, and covered with trees. A 



irele of men was formed round it, and they gradually closed up, ascending pretty near to each 



■ther. Being down below on the plain with a native schoolmaster, named Mebalwe, a most ex- 



ellent man, I saw one of the lions sitting on a piece of rock within the now closed circle of men. 



lebalwe fired at him before I could, and the ball struck the rock on which, the' animal was sit^ 



*ng. He bit at the spot struck, as a dog does at a stick or stone thrown at him ; then leaping 



way, broke through the opening circle and escaped unhurt. The men were afraid to attack 



'dm, perhaps on account of their belief in witchcraft. When the circle was re-formed, we saw 



vo other lions in it; but we were afraid to fire lest we should strike the men, and they allowed 



o 



