ADVENTURES WITH LIONS. 589 
placed her trophies upon Beauty and held for camp Before 
we had proceeded a hundred yards from the carcass, upwards 
of sixty vultures, whom the lioness had often fed, were 
feasting on her remains. 
These tawny ladies appear to have a temper of their own, 
in common with the sex generally; indeed, it appears to be 
the united testimony of travellers, that the lioness is most 
apt to be aggressively dangerous when she has cubs; while 
the attacks of the lion are only to be greatly dreaded when 
wounded, while he stands on the defensive. Harris, however, 
exhibits the monarch in one of those grand and terrible out- 
bursts of apparently causeless wrath, to which he, in common 
with the elephant and all the larger beasts, seem to be subject, 
both in their native wilds and in confinement. Here is his 
story. 
Peeping out, however, to ascertain if there was any 
prospect of its clearing up, we perceived three lions squttted 
within a hundred yards, in the open plain, attentively 
watching the oxen. Our rifles were hastily seized, but the 
dampness of the atmosphere prevented their exploding. One 
after another, too, the Hottentots sprang out of the pack 
wagon, and snapped their guns at the unwelcome intruders, 
as they trotted sulkily away, and took up their position on 
a stony eminence at no great distance. Fresh caps and 
priming were applied, and a broadside was followed by the 
instantaneous demise of the largest, whose cranium was 
perforated by two bullets at the same instant. Swinging 
their tails over their backs, the two survivors took warning 
by the fate of their companion, and dashed into the thicket 
with a roar. In another half hour the voice of Leo was 
again heard at the foot of the mountains, about a quarter 
of a mile from the camp; and from the wagon top we could 
perceive a savage monster rampant, with his tail hoisted and 
whirling in a circle, charging furiously along the base of the 
range, and in desperate wrath, making towards Jobn April, 
