of the Old World. 471 



A lynx was crying close to us, and a pack of 

 jackals twice rushed howling across the clearing, but 

 the lion was still far off as ever, as we could tell 

 from his voice. 



His roar seemed to come from a low and densely- 

 wooded hill about half a mile's distance. We held a 

 short consultation, and agreed to follow up by the 

 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 dis- 

 tant discharge of fire-arms. 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 pos- 

 sible towards the spot from whence we imagined it to 

 proceed. At last we came pretty near, as his breath- 

 ing 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 dis- 

 tant. I put fresh caps on my rifle, and 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 pro- 

 ceed 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 



