XVII CAMPING AT EL BOGOI 403 



bones of last night's lion, whose carcase had been thrown out 

 for them to eat ; and I rested with a relieved mind, confident 

 that in the morning we should find our remaining scourge lying 

 dead beside my trap. 



And so it proved ; for, on going to see the result of the 

 shot, there lay the other lion, dead, just inside the den, from 

 which he had been coming out. He had got the bullet in 

 the head and dropped on the spot, under the gun. This one 

 was rather larger than the first, but of the same type ; both 

 were full-grown males. In skinning the last, a .303 bullet, very 

 much knocked out of shape, was found in his upper lip. This 

 was the shot I had fired in the dark. It had hit the large 

 upper canine tooth right in the very centre of its point, smash- 

 ing the tooth to atoms and indenting the nose of the bullet. 

 The lion must have had his head on one side, holding on to the 

 donkey, to have received the bullet in such a way. It shows 

 how keen he must have been, that even that could not deter 

 him nor even spoil his appetite. That morning the donkey 

 which this shot had rescued was brought in. It had some 

 deepish claw gashes on its hindquarters, but had not yet been 

 caught by the neck when let go. What astonished me about 

 this experience was the difficulty these lions had in pulling 

 down a strong donkey, and the time it took them to kill one. 

 I no longer wondered at zebra often getting off with scratches — 

 I have often shot them with long scars made by lions' claws. 



We could now sleep in peace once more, except for the re- 

 joicings of hyenas, which could do us no harm, over the bones 

 of the lions. 



Lesiat and Co. looked with astonishment at seeing two lions' 

 skins pegged out, and thought after all I must have some 

 powerful charms. As for my donkeys, we eventually found all 

 but four ; they were scattered far and wide, and the last of 

 those we recovered were not brought in till a month after. 

 Donkeys differ from horses and cattle in this curious respect, 

 that when lost they wander about aimlessly in any direction. 



