Ill 
BIG GAME SH0077NG, 1887 
65 
elephants had quite beaten us, and we made the best of our way 
home, reaching camp at dusk after a very tiring day. 
For two days I had horsemen dogging the footsteps of the 
wounded bulls, but they returned and reported that the herd 
had gone past Little Harar and might not pull up for two days, 
having been thoroughly disturbed by the hunt. They had 
followed the tracks of the sick bull for twenty-five miles, and he 
had separated from the herd, halting to roll many times, and at 
last his tracks had become mixed with those of a fresh herd of 
bulls, cows, and young ones, and they had then left them. Lain 
having recently fallen had made the tracking more difficult. 1 
On the night after this long elephant-hunt we were awakened 
at about twelve by two lions keeping up a deep roaring, repeated 
at short intervals, which seemed to be uttered only thirty yards 
from our fence, though in reality the distance was at least a 
hundred, as was shown next morning by the pugs in the sand. 
Luckily, neither my mule nor the three Somffii ponies were at 
all nervous, or we should have had them breaking away. One 
lion kept up wind, giving at first low grunts, growing louder and 
ending in a roar, then dwindling down again to nothing. After 
a bit he would be answered by a rumbling sound on the other 
side, from a lioness concealed in the reeds down at the river- 
bed close by. There was absolutely no moon, so we could do 
nothing but replenish the fires with grass and sticks. My men 
jeered at the lions, saying they were not in earnest or they 
would not make so much noise. We had left some meat out 
within twenty yards of our fence, but found it untouched in 
the morning, the lions evidently fearing to come so close. 
I found Hembeweina very pleasant, and never tired of 
wandering about near camp examining the fresh elephant-tracks 
in the river-bed. A herd which had lately passed had made 
several wells or large holes in the sand, into which water trickled 
from the stream, and over these holes they had stood to drink 
and throw water over their bodies. 
One day I was out quite alone on one of these rambles, and 
after crossing the river had ascended to the top of a plateau half 
a mile from camp. The summit was covered with black stones 
1 Some time afterwards, in Berbera, two natives came down and reported 
that they had seen the dead elephant near Hargeisa, and that a passing 
caravan had appropriated the tusks on its way to Harar. Through the proper 
channels I applied to the Emir of Harar for their recovery, and that is the 
last I ever heard of them. 
F 
