298 LARGE PACKS OF LIONS. [chap. x. 



light, I bought what little ivory I could from Amiral's 

 people, and took it away with me. I sold it after- 

 wards at St. Helena for about 701. We returned by 

 the way which a few pages back I mentioned as the 

 one that I recommended for waggons to travel upon. 

 We had a little shooting, but not much ; at one place 

 we i^ut up eight lions ; they were not close together, 

 but within a space about 200 yards across, through 

 which we happened to drive. It was the largest 

 pack I had seen. Fourteen is the largest I have ever 

 heard of. These eight were all full-grown beasts; 

 five of them were females. We had two falls of rain, 

 enough to supply the Quieep Eiver well ; indeed, we 

 found a pool with enough water to swim in at the place 

 where we outspanned. 



After the first showers the landscape looked 

 charming ; the sere leaves of the trees freshened up, 

 and the air was laden with the fragrance of the 

 acacias. For the sportsman, the rain makes a tabula 

 rasa of the sand of the country, by obliterating all 

 old tracks and disposing the ground to admit the 

 sharpest and most distinct foot-mark impressions, 

 which it is quite a luxury to follow. It is wonderful 

 how much may be learnt from spoors ; a few tracks 

 will tell a long tale. Thus, a short time since, some 

 of Amiral's men came upon the track of a giraffe, 

 grazing, and others of the party upon that of a lion 

 crouching. Of course the spoors were followed. Of 

 a sudden the lion's tracks entirely disappeared, and 

 those of the giraffe showed he was at full gallop ; a 

 small slippery place, caused by a slight shower, lay 



