Trail and Camp-Fire 



shows our camp, with the dead leopard, and 

 three small live leopards brought in by natives. 

 These small leopards played about the camp 

 like kittens, and were very sociable and much 

 at home. 



Arrived at the green hunting grounds, we 

 found plenty of lion tracks, and the next 

 morning early, I bagged my first lion. We 

 found he had followed up our caravan track 

 during the night, and, coming up to the zare- 

 ba, within twenty feet of A. D. S.'s tent, was 

 undoubtedly about to jump in, when the sen- 

 try shouted at him. He growled, and turn- 

 ing, saw a donkey, which had been staked 

 outside the zareba, and near which I was, 

 lying behind some thorn brush. In one or 

 two bounds the lion had cleared the space, 

 and all was soon over with the poor donkey 

 My stand was only ten feet away, and, as the 

 dust cleared, I saw the lion holding the don- 

 key up, off the ground, by the throat. Aim- 

 ing at his neck, I fired, and without any other 

 sound than a long sigh, the lion sank down 

 on the ground in a perfectly natural position, 

 the donkey still in his mouth. The ball had 

 smashed the spinal column close to the skull, 

 and killed him instantly. We shot, alto- 



Ii6 



