CHAPTER IX 



MOBE LIONS 



THE weather had now cleared slightly, the in- 

 cessant rain giving place to fresh, cool days, with 

 an occasional violent thunderstorm. The ground 

 was in beautiful condition for tracking, the saturated 

 sand holding spoor in such a way that to the 

 initiated the whole country was an open book, 

 faithfully recording the hour at which each beast 

 had passed by. Often tragedies could be exactly 

 followed up the stalking of a herd of buck by 

 some carnivora, and the place where the final 

 rush took place. Under these circumstances one 

 could pick one's game and make fairly certain of 

 finding it. Between the 19th and 22nd of May 

 we killed five lions and sighted another, which 

 latter, however, saved his skin till four days later ; 

 in the interval, Eustace captured two live lion 

 cubs. We might have done even better, but had 

 a little bad luck, in that several times heavy 

 thunderstorms burst when we were hot on fresh 

 lion spoor, and the torrents of rain cleaned off 



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