30 TEACKING THE LION. [chap. n. 



through these, but at the time of my "visit they were 

 uiioccuj)iecl. 



To return to the lion. When I turned into bed I 

 listened long for a roar or some token of his presence, 

 but in vain ; and at last I dropped asleep. In the 

 morning we found his tracks all about us, he had paid 

 particular attention to a hut that was lying rather 

 apart from the others, and had been prowling all round 

 it. Stewartson volunteered to accompany me, he 

 disapproved of horseback, and mounted his trusty 

 ox. Mr. Stewartson's profession in early life was 

 that of a tailor — though subsequently a dissenting 

 minister, and afterwards a cattle trader. I confess that 

 I felt, as I rode by his side, I had rather have been 

 introduced to the genus " lion " by a person of 

 almost any other calling, and carried by any other 

 kind of animal than my bucoUc friend's. I took 

 two of my men with me, and off we set with a 

 few natives. The Hon had walked backwards and 

 forwards so much in the night, that it was long before 

 we found the last tracks he had made. We followed 

 them very quickly, as his broad foot-print was unmis- 

 takeable on the sand ; there was a growing interest as 

 we found how he had stopped and looked down and 

 considered whether a bush by one side woidd suit 

 him or not, but had decided in the negative and 

 gone slowly on. We peered about and marched very 

 silently ; the bushes got thicker, and the pace slower, 

 when we stopped short at a weU-trodden part whence 

 the Hon had evidently just risen, for the sand was still 

 warm from his touch. Had he gone away, or was he 



