CHAP, n.] FINDING AND LOSING HIM. 31 



close by, was the question. We were all mixed up 

 together. Of a sudden the lion stood up, twelve paces 

 in front, looked over his shoulder at us, made an easy 

 noiseless bound, and was gone. His action was so 

 steady, so smooth, so entirely devoid of hurry, that I 

 could perfectly understand how a person might be 

 seized through miscalculating the speed of his advance. 

 As it was, he disappeared before one of our guns was 

 well up to our shoulders. I am sure, if he had come 

 at us, he could have done what mischief he liked. 

 My horse woiUd have shied on to the horns of 

 Stewartson's ox, and in the narrow pass we should all 

 have tumbled about and rolled one on another. The 

 cover into which he went, and on the border of which 

 he had been lying, was far too thick to be practicable 

 for our further pursuit, though we did make several 

 good attempts at dislodging him. I returned very 

 crest-fallen at our want of success, but I had now seen 

 the animal and better understood the elements of 

 hunting him. 



As we rode back across the plain we saw vast 

 numbers of old gemsbok tracks, although there are 

 but few of these fine antelopes in the neighbourhood ; 

 but impressions made on this crisp graveUy soU take 

 years to efface ; they seem to be almost stereotyped ; 

 and a very few animals and waggons have produced 

 an extraordinaiy number of spoors. 



I mentioned that Scheppmansdorf was built in a rude 

 circle. To the middle of this the oxen of the place come 

 of their own accord every night as the evening sets in, 

 and lie there till the early morning ; they find shelter 



