THE LION AND HIS P^EY. 



699 



eyes to penetrate the thicket's gloom, but nothing suspicious appears or moves along 

 the bank. Long and deeply they quaff the delicious draught ; but suddenly with a 

 giant spring, like lightning bursting from a cloud, the lion bounds upon the unsuspect- 

 ing revellers, and the leader of the herd lies prostrate at his feet, while his companions 

 fly into the desert. 



LIONS PULLING DOWN A GIRAFFE. 



Andersson is one of the very few who have ever had an opportunity of seeing the 

 lion seizing his prey in broad daylight. Late one evening he had badly wounded a 

 lion ; and on the following morning set out with his attendants, following the bloody 

 tracks of the animal. " Presently," he writes, " we came upon the ' spoor ' of a whole 

 troop of lions, as also that of a solitary giraffe. So many tracks confused us, and 

 while endeavoring to pick out from the rest those of the wounded lion, I observed my 

 native attendants suddenly rush forward, and the next instant the jungle re-echoed 

 with the shouts of triumph. Thinking they had discovered the lion we were in pur- 

 suit of, I also hurried forward ; but imagine my surprise when emerging into an open- 

 ing in the jungle I saw, not a dead lion, as I expected, but five living lions — two 

 males and three females — two of whom were in the act of pulling down a splendid 

 giraffe, the other three watching close at hand, and with devouring looks, the deadly 



