218 A LION HUNT. 



a single scamper through the high grass, he kept on 

 the other side, not seeming to like it. Some of us, 

 impatient of the delay, wanted to enter the cover, 

 but this was loudly remonstrated against by the Hot- 

 tentots, and overruled by our experienced com- 

 panions, who knew the danger of one of the party 

 being upset by a sudden spring of the animals, before 

 the others could get a shot. At last the lion sud- 

 denly sprung up, and with a short roar or snort, and 

 an impatient toss of his head and mane, bounded 

 away down the little valley, one of the Hottentots 

 immediately mounting and pursuing him, with loud 

 cries, and at last firing a shot, when he couched in a 

 thick patch of reeds, the man remaining like a sentry 

 on the declivity, to watch him. The impatience of 

 one or two now overcame all caution, and we ad- 

 vanced in a line in the high sedges, when the female 

 suddenly went off with a similar leap and grunt, but 

 in another direction, a shot fired by me to bring her 

 to having no effect. She lay again in a thick patch, 

 about three hundred yards off, and we were now 

 sure of her. We immediately followed, and lining 

 the nearest edge of the cover, here about seventy 

 yards across, with some coaxing got the dog to enter. 

 After beating a little, he was crossing towards us, 

 when, all at once, as if fascinated, he stopped short, 

 with his head on one side, and his nose pointing to 

 a spot not three yards from him, and with a look of 

 most ludicrous amazement, in fact, struck all of a 



