Diary. 55 



tins: a track hero and there, hut found nothing 

 and the men wanted to give up, as it was im- 

 possible to track. Generally I am the one that 

 gives in first, but these lions had eaten that 

 woman at Fanat, and I was extra keen on get- 

 ting them, so I suggested tracking in a wide 

 sweep all round the hill on the low ground. We 

 found the tracks just as I was going to give it 

 up (in fact, I had made up my mind that if we 

 found no tracks before reaching a tree about 100 

 yards ahead that I would go back), we came on 

 tracks. We followed them into the usual very 

 high dense grass and bush ; after looking up 

 several lively spots we saw the tracks leading to 

 a twenty-foot high tree in thick leaf (fig tree), 

 branches reaching nearly to the ground, and 

 grass up to the branches. It looked good, so 

 we advanced very quietly ; Jama looked over 

 the fringe of grass and pointed to the ground, 

 apparently just in front of my feet. I brought 

 up the 10-bore to the " ready," and looked over. 

 As I brought up the gun I touched a branch, and 

 as I looked over the grass I saw something 

 yellow on the ground. It moved as I looked at 

 it, and I was afraid it would run off and be lost 



