220 A LION HUNT. 



across to the creek. The scene was highly amusing 

 and novel, the sun shining brightly on the animated 

 party above, and on the oily brown skins of the 

 naked Hottentots, standing in the water, and the 

 white gleaming shoulders and arms of the swimmers, 

 as they impelled the half- seen corpse through the 

 deep blue mirror of the reed -fringed pool. When 

 brought to land, he was flayed and decapitated for 

 his skull. He w T as a young male, scarcely so large 

 as a lioness, and his imperfect, short, taivny mane 

 showed him to be not nearly full grown, which 

 accounted for the most unusual circumstance of his 

 declining fight, instead of coming in at once. The 

 female, to which we returned, was of tolerable size, 

 though not so large nor handsome as the first killed, 

 though she had four unborn whelps, with downy 

 skins, striped like the tiger. Our horses did not 

 exhibit the least appearance of alarm or dislike to 

 approach her close, but it is well known that they 

 become paralyzed with terror at the rush of the living- 

 lion *." 



A long journey being before us, and the oxen 

 having suffered from the effects of the sharp and 

 stony roads over which they had travelled, we had 

 the good fortune to hire a fresh span from one of 

 the Hottentots on the Station ; and leaving Bal- 

 four we proceeded to the settlement on the Chumie 

 River. We remarked that game was unusually 



* United Service Journal, August 1834. 



