224 THE LION. 



minaries. The horses were tied together in a line, taking care 

 to turn their heads from the direction where the lion was at bay, 

 and likewise that they were to the windward of him, lest his very 

 scent should scare them into flight. The retreat behind this 

 living wall is the Boor's last resource if he should advance upon 

 them, that his indiscriminate fury may fall upon the horses. 

 Some of the Boors are excellent marksmen, and the Hottentot 

 soldiers are far from being despicable -, yet many a bullet was 

 sent ere he was slain. Desperate from wounds he received, his 

 claw was no longer harmless -, one dog he almost tore to pieces, 

 and two more were destroyed ere he fell. At each shot, he 

 rushed forward as if with the intent of singling out the man who 

 fired, but his rage was always vented on the dogs, and he again 

 retired to the station he had left. The ground appeared to 

 be bathed with his blood. Every succeeding attempt to rush 

 forward displayed less vigour and fury, and at last, totally ex- 

 hausted, he fell j but still the approach was dangerous. In the 

 last struggle of his expiring agony he might have inflicted a 

 mortal wound : cautiously approaching, he was shot through 

 the heart ; twelve wounds were counted in his head, body, and 

 limbs. 



" On another occasion we roused two on the summit of a low 

 stony hill. They were deliberately descending one side as we 

 reached the top, and amid a shower of bullets, they quietly 

 crossed a plain to ascend another. We followed, and they 

 separated ; we brought them to bay in succession, and slew 

 both. It appears to me, from what I have seen and heard, that 

 a lion once wounded will immediately turn upon his pursuers ; 

 but I am of opinion that he seldom attacks man, generally shuns 

 his vicinity, and that he has none of the reported partiality for 

 human flesh. In the district I described, and of which a 

 description was necessary to show that we encountered him upon 

 clear and open ground, the various kinds of lion were originally 

 very numerous. The Boors enumerated three the yellow, grey, 

 and black. Their numbers were much diminished, principally, 

 perhaps, from their retreating beyond Orange River to an 



