230 Animal Life : 
had I attempted to get nearer to him he would certainly have seen me at once and 
then trotted away after his companions. So steadying myself and taking very fine 
with the 200-yards’ sight, I fired. My bullet must have passed close beneath the 
brute’s chest—I think behind his fore legs—as I saw it knock up the dust just 
beyond him. He at once sprang to the spot where the bullet struck the ground 
and again stood still, facing now exactly away from me and without apparently 
having taken any notice of the report of my rifle—a -450-bore single-barrelled Gibbs- 
Metford. Extracting the empty cartridge and pushing a fresh one into the breech, 
as silently and quickly as possible, I fired again, this time taking a fuller sight and 
aiming for the centre of the lion’s somewhat narrow hindquarters. The dull thud 
which answered the report of the rifle assured me that I had hit him, but I never 
saw a lion before make so little fuss about a wound. He gave one spring forwards, 
accompanied by a loud growl, and then stood still again. But only for a moment. 
Then he came trotting round towards where I sat on the side of the ant-heap, 
turning first to one side then 
to the other, and evidently 
searching for what had hurt 
him, and I am sure that had 
he made me out he would 
have charged instantly. How- 
ever, | was dressed only in an 
old felt hat, a cotton shirt, 
and a pai of shoes, and my 
scanty garments and bare 
sunburnt limbs were all so 
weather - stained and harmo- 
nised so well with the neutral 
tints of my inmediate sur- 
roundings that he never saw 
ENS NS Saas me. I had thrown the empty 
ROE cartridge out of my rifle before 
Tear ae the lon tuned, but had no 
ae < Se time to reload before he com- 
g eee Sais cae i NS menced to trot towards me, 
Ehotoguaply by Norman, G:Smath, sq: for knowing that the shghtest 
FRONT VIEW OF WATERBUCK LYING DOWN. movement on my part would 
attract his attention, I sat perfectly still, feeling sure that im case cf a charge I 
should have ample time to slip the cartridge, which I held ready in my hand, into 
the breech before he got to me. However, he never discovered me, though he 
approached to within 100 yards of the ant-heap on the side of which I was 
sitting. He then stopped, and after first looking towards me, turned round and 
once more stood facing exactly away from me. This was my chance, so hastily 
loading and putting down the 200-yards’ leaf sight, I again fired at him and again 
heard my bullet strike. With a loud growl he sprang forwards and then went 
off at a gallop. He turned almost immediately and, running almost broadside to 
me, made for a large ant-heap with some bushes growing on the top of it. Before 
he reached it I fired again and knocked him down, but after having lain still for a 
few moments he got up and half ran, half dragged himself to the ant-heap and, 
disappeared behind the bush on its summit. I now walked round and reconnoitred 
the ant-heap behind which the lon had disappeared, and found that just beyond it 
there was a small paich of unburnt grass quite six feet high, in which no doubt he 
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