270 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



eye, and passed through the back of the roof of liia 

 mouth. 



The lion then sprang up, and, facing about, dashed 

 through the reeds and plungod into the river, across 

 which he swam, dyeing the waters with his blood ; one 

 black dog, named " Schwart," alone pursued him. A 

 nuge crocodile, attracted by the .blood, followed in their 

 wake, but fortunately did not take my dog, which I 

 much feared he would do. Present fired at the lion as 

 he swam, and missed him ; both my barrels were empty. 

 Before, however, the lion could make the opposite bank, 

 I had one loaded without patch, and just as his feet 

 gained the ground I made a fine shot at his neck, and 

 turned him over dead on the spot. Present, Carollus, 

 and Adonis then swam in and brought him through. 

 "We landed him by an old hippopotamus foot-path, and, 

 the day being damp and cold, we kindled a fire, beside 

 which we skinned him. While this was going forward 

 I had a painful duty to perform, viz., to load one bar- 

 rel, and blow out Rascality's brains, whom the lion had 

 utterly disabled in his after-quarters. Thus ended this 

 protracted and all but unsuccessful hunt; for when I 

 at length managed to shoot him, the dogs were quite 

 tired of it, and, the reeds being green, I could not have 

 set them on fire to force him out. 



The lion proved to be a first-rate one ; he was in the 

 prime of life, and had an exquisitely beautiful coat of 

 hair. His mane was not very rank ; his awful teeth 

 were quite perfect, a thing which in lions of his age is 

 rather unusual; and he had the finest tuft of hair on 

 the end of his tail that I had ever seen in a lion. In 

 the chase my after-rider, who fortunately did not carry 

 my rifle, got a tremendous capsize from bad riding, a 

 f vnmon occurrence with most after-riders who have 



