The Lion 125 



their animals round so that they may receive the charge, 

 if one is made, and then fire volleys with their roers — 

 guns nearly as large as Asiatic and Mediaeval wall-pieces. 

 A number of other European sportsmen have also shot 

 from the saddle ; the advantage of this plan being that, in 

 case the lion is only wounded, their horses will enable 

 them to escape. Care is, however, necessary not to get 

 too close ; otherwise, so great is this beast's speed for a 

 short distance, that a mounted man is almost certain to be 

 overtaken. 



The lion is a nocturnal animal, although in the more 

 wild and desolate regions he may often be seen by day, 

 especially in dark and stormy weather, and then either 

 singly or in troops. Families of lions live together until 

 the cubs are mature enough to shift for themselves ; but a 

 troop is a temporary co-operative association designed to 

 drive game. Andersson states that he has seen " six or 

 seven together, all of whom, so far as he could judge, were 

 full-grown, or nearly so." Freeman relates that he once 

 encountered a party consisting of ten lions. On another 

 occasion he saw " five lions (two males and three females) 

 in a party, and two of these were in the act of pulling down 

 a splendid giraffe^ the other three watching, close at hand, 

 and with devouring looks, the deadly strife." Delgorgue 

 once counted thirty lions formed in a hunting line. Many 

 are really shot on foot in Africa, many more indeed than 

 the tigers reported to have been killed in this manner in 

 India. 



Skaarm-shooting — the occupation by the hunter of a par- 

 tially covered trench near a water-hole, — and the machan, 



