VII 
JOURNEY TO WEB BE SNA BE LEU RIVER 
183 
before following a wounded lioness into those dark evergreen 
bushes. 
I woke up again at sunrise, and without going to camp or 
tasting food, at once took up the tracks of the lioness. Her 
line of retreat was sprinkled with blood. We drew the bushes 
under the opposite bank very carefully, and then began to ascend 
the bank by the path, the wind being with us, blowing towards 
the south. Before we had reached the top we heard several 
loud roars a few hundred yards beyond, and as we appeared on 
the higher level the roars were redoubled, issuing from low 7 , 
gray, leafless mimosa bush. We followed, keeping to the tracks, 
and at last saw, eighty yards away, the head of the lioness, 
held vertically, regarding us intently from the partial conceal- 
ment of a tuft of grass on the farther side of a glade. She 
seemed to be on the eve of charging, the black point of her 
tail twdtching nervously behind her head, which bore a nasty 
expression. I fired, but missed the small mark. There were 
now eight of us, some of my men who had come to take away 
the blankets and other things from the bower having joined us. 
We stood in an irregular line, fully expecting a charge, and I 
fired another standing shot at the wicked-looking head, my 
bullet going harmlessly through the grass. Looking under the 
smoke quickly, I saw her still in the same place, but she was in 
a greater rage than ever, and kept up a steady low growling. 
This was my first experience of one of these animals after having 
been so badly mauled by one, and the situation w 7 as becoming 
highly exciting. I now sat down, and resting both elbows on 
my knees, took a careful shot. Her head dropped, showing I 
had killed her, and we walked up to wdiere she lay. 
My first bullet, fired at her while drinking at the w r ater, had 
struck her in the left forearm and shattered it, accounting for 
her not having charged ; and my last had touched her left 
cheek, and then entering perpendicularly, had expanded and 
carried away half the brain-pan. She was a fine lioness, the 
skin being in splendid condition. I told Geli and Hassan to 
stay and skin her, as I had to follow up the rhinoceros wounded 
in the early part of the night. But they begged to be allowed 
to go with me, so I left two camelmen to do the skinning of the 
lioness. 
Going to camp and hastily swallowing some coffee, we re- 
turned to the scene of last night’s adventure, and found the 
tracks of the rhinoceros plentifully sprinkled with blood. One 
