136 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEII5T. [Oct. 1, im. 
ONLT FOUR LIONS 
had returned, hnt I was able to pnt in a quick 
right-and-left at one of them as it sprang to 
the right of the carcase. Leslie al-^o liita hicr 
chap hard, as he broke away to the left, 
and we heard him grunting fiu'icnsly 
down in the donga, and he had evidently, 
in his rage, turned upon one of his com- 
panions wiio had approached the wounded 
beast. My honess, btricken to death, was 
meanwhile grunting hoarsely, and moaning 
in extremis hard by our scherm. Soon these 
sounds ceased, and the silence of the night 
was broken only by the weird and mournful 
cries of an owl, or the "kwawk" of some 
distant wildebeeste. Almost breathless we 
lay and hoped, but hoped in vain, for a 
further visit from the giant feline. Slowly 
the crescent moon rose over the tree-tops, 
about half past one. and just as its faint rays 
pierced the dark shadows around we lieard 
the savage growling of a lion by the carcase, 
and felt sure that luck was once more with 
us. Not so, however, for silence soon reigned 
unbroken, and it was evident that one of 
the party of lions had come up, had winded 
us, and had then followed his companions 
down the valley to the Umkusi River. It 
seemed ages before this never-to-be forgotten 
night passed, and we were enabled by the 
wan light of the coming dawn to crawl out 
of our scherm, and find out what result had 
been achieved during those, the most excit- 
ing hours of our lives. This was soon seen, 
for there, within, respectively, 20 and 30 
yards from the carcase, 
LA.Y THE GRIM AND TAWNY FORMS OP TWO 
PINE LIONESSES. 
They were both in perfect condition and 
looked the personification of brute strength 
with their massive limbs, as we shook hands 
warmly hy them, and drained a flask of 
mountain dew to the goddess of sport. 
Natives from our camp soon arrived, and 
we endeavoured, but in vain, to track Leslie's 
wounded lion through the thick thorn 
bushes along the donga. Poor Leslie was 
nuturally terribly disappointed at losing his 
lion in this v ay, and I think you will 
understand my feelings as a sportsman when 
I say I fully sympathised with him in his 
hard and cruel luck. I have now little more 
to add re lions. Naturally we were exultant 
in the success of our plans, and I may add, 
by the way, that, had the blue lights come 
to hand, I am firmly of opinion that we 
SHOULD HAVE BAGGED THE WHOLE 
FAMILY PARTY 
of lions. We laid bait, and changed our 
scherm to other places, when we found that 
the surviving lions did not return to the 
carcase the following night. All in vain, how- 
ever, and I may say, briefly, that we had 
no more luck, the remainder of the lions 
having apparently had their nerves so badly 
shattered that they cleared right away from 
that district. We slept in scherms for 
nearly a fortnight after the big event, and 
did all that the wit of man and native cun- 
ning could do to bring us to terms with 
more lions, hut it was not to he, and Leslie 
had to return to Nongoma without retriev 
ing his ill fortune. I am now also forced to 
throw up the sponge, and am of opinion, 
in the light of past experience, that lions 
in Ihe Uliomho district are restricted to 
those mentioned, and that, had other and 
undisturbed jjacks, or even single lions, been 
about, we must inevitably have come across 
them, or at least seen their spoor about the 
neighbnurli()i)d. Fever is worse there than 
111 anv other part of Zululand, and poor 
Gold, clerk to the Ubomho .Ma.gistracy, con- 
tracted fever, and died aitt-r a few days of 
hut-tax collecting in the vicinity of our lion- 
shoot. So we shall be lucky indeed if wo get 
off scot free. I have shot altogether about 
200 head of game, buck, and bird, but my 
BAG HAS BKEN GREATLY LES8H.NED BY 
DANGER OF BOER RAIDS, 
and on account of our not firing shots while 
hunting, to avoid disturbing the ground. 
— NataL Mercury. C. M. 
PRODUCE. PLANTING, AND COMMER- 
CIAL NOTES. 
The wifsdom of the p .licy of selling tea by means of 
SECRET AUCTIONS 
has beet) keenly debited from the first, and the contro- 
versy Etill goes o!J. We notice that the Orocer of last 
Saturday publishes a list occupying several pages of 
the nifirka of teas disposed of in secret, so that the 
retailer may, if he choose, trace these packages. Those 
who favour the new departure cUim that, apart Jrom 
the right cf the producer to sell his teas in dn v way he 
may think fit, the publication of the sales has long been 
a sore point wi h many wholesale dealers, and has 
been ■ ne of the factors operating against higher prices. 
Some of those who believe that these secret sales are a 
mistake claim that a false impression as to the extent 
of the dealers' protiis is thereby created, and that the 
wholesale trade will suffer in consequence. There is a 
letter in the Grace-?' of last week signed " Kandpore 
Tea Oorapany," \n which the writer takes exception to 
these secret sales on other grounds. They say : " This, 
we think, is one of tlje greatest blunders ever made by 
the wliolesale tea dealers, i.e., by a few of the Isading 
h 'uses who have prevailed upon the importers to try 
the system It is a blunder because this step is open 
to misunderstanding aud misrepresentation : mis- 
understanding on the part > f the misinformed daily 
press, which is publishing absurd and mist ading 
articles ; misreprei-eatation by some blenders, brokers, 
travellers, and others interested in doing whole- 
salers an injury. It is monstrous to represent 
wholesale tea deali;ra, as a class, as bloodsuckers, 
and secret sales as a scheme for adding to their 
already exorbitant gains. Nothing could be much 
further from the tuiih. Whose trade is suffering from 
inadequate profits more than the wholesale tea dealer's 
and who hns been so much the grocer's friend in 
the way of credit-giving and otherwise as he has 
been ? Njt a few grocers finance their business 
mainly on the credit they take on tea and duty. 
This system of small profits and slow r eturns is, though 
a bo' n to the retailer, the reason for tha hard times 
amongst the wholesalers, who in look ng r ucd for 
some means of be'teiing their terribly cut profits 
have hit upon tliis expedient of secret sales, an ex- 
pedient, however, which w ll not help them, because 
it will not lessen cr.mpetition. The wh ile trouble is 
due to the pre alenl Yankee 8y^.tem of trading, which 
makes not only some dealers, but also some blenders, 
brokers, travellers, and grocers niterly selfish, un- 
truthful, vindictive, and morally dishonest. Thegolden 
rule is in sad disuse nowadays ; indeed, some mea 
