io8 Wild Beasts 



"The storm soon passed over, but being doubtful 

 whether their guns might not be wet, it was thought 

 advisable to discharge them. This was no sooner done, 

 however, than the lion began to roar terribly, and 

 continued doing so for some time, in the direction 

 of the late scene of conflict, from which it was pretty 

 evident, that, though they had been unable to find him 

 in the patch, he had been harbored there the whole 

 time. 



"When reloaded, the party therefore returned to the 

 brake, and were informed by one of the markers that 

 on the report of the guns, the lion had rushed roaring 

 from it into the more open country, evidently for the 

 purpose of venting his rage on the first object that 

 came across his path. On proceeding a little further 

 they were hailed by another marker, who told them that 

 the brute was crouched in a cluster of brambles, of a very 

 limited extent, about twenty paces from the very tree in 

 which he himself was perched. 



"As the country was pretty open around the thicket 

 in question, the sportsmen were able to reconnoitre it 

 narrowly, and that without taking the elephants into the 

 very thick of it, which was deemed unadvisable, as, had 

 those animals come directly upon the lion, they might 

 have been scared and rendered unmanageable. But the 

 J^east was not perceptible. 



" From the cover being so limited in extent, it appeared 

 to be almost, an impossibility that the lion could be there, 

 the rather that the elephants, so remarkable for their fine 

 sense of smell, did not seem at all aware of his presence, 



