556 Great and Small Game of Africa 



and as my boy was lagging behind with the double-12, I lost the chance 

 of giving her another shot, as she picked herself up and made ofF after the 

 others. I ran in pursuit, and reached the bank of a wide creek in time to 

 see a fine old male lion entering the bush on the other side : it was a snap- 

 shot, but by the way he growled I thought I hit him somewhere. Before 

 following them, I went back to try and secure the cub, but found that it had 

 rejoined its mother (which evidently was not the lioness I wounded) and 

 gone off in another direction. The lions had killed three impalas and 

 dragged the remains into the grove of trees, and the hyaena, an old dog, 

 had probably been killed for trying to annex a feed. His right hind- 

 leg was broken and nearly torn from the body, and there were fang- 

 wounds in the head. We followed the blood-spoor for over two miles, 

 always in the direction of camp, the lion and three lionesses 1 keep- 

 ing together, but eventually lost it in a dense thorn-jungle close to 

 camp ; and, as we were all hungry, I resolved to go to the tent and 

 get something to eat, and tackle them again afterwards. I found a brother 

 sportsman awaiting my arrival, Mr. C. E. Parsons, a gentleman who had 

 been shooting through Portuguese Territory, and he at once consented to 

 accompany me back to the spot, and help hunt up the wounded lions. 

 However, we met with no better luck than before, so I suggested our 

 separating, and each making a long forward cast, he with one boy to the 

 right, I with another to the left. This plan was so far successful, that, while 

 crawling on hands and knees through some dense bush, on the bank of a 

 deep, dry river-bed, I found, first a single blood-spot, then, 20 feet beyond, 

 a broad smear of it on some long dry grass at the edge of the bank. I at 

 once whispered to my boy to go and fetch Mr. Parsons, and when he had 

 crept away, I clambered down the bank — a drop of over 8 feet. As I was 



1 The spoors of adults of each sex are easily distinguishable, one from the other, those of the fore-foot 

 of the lion being disproportionately larger than those of the hind-foot, whereas those of the fore and 

 hind-feet of the lioness arc nearly of equal size. 



