TRAVELS IN 
night to retire with his family ; and In (Ht 
mornings when we returned to the chace, wc 
found the thicket deferted. 
From the firft movements of my dogs when 
they entered the buQies, and their manner of 
hunting, I perceived that we v\^ere too late. 
To be certain, however, I fired off a piftol a 
few times, hoping that the animals, if they 
were ftill there, would be roufed at the report, 
and foon caufe themfelves to be heard, either 
by their growling, or the ftir they would make 
in the bufhes. 
This preliminary having produced no figns 
of any thing being prefent, we cautioufly 
advanced into the thicket, where we found 
the marks only of the fpoil that had been made 
by this hungry family. On all fides were feen 
bones fcattered about or lying in heaps ; and 
the fight of this charnel-houfcj reminding the 
horde of the lofTes it had experienced, each 
began to relate and lament his own. 
in the mean time I employed myfelf in 
tracing the footfteps of the lion and the whelps, 
to judge of the bulk of the one, and the num^ 
ber and fize of the others. Though there 
are inftances of a lionefs having three young 
4 ones 
