72 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
along for a while, it beat us and we turned back. In vain I 
looked out for vultures in the direction the elephant had been 
going in ; but as a matter of fact they often do not collect 
round the carcase of one of these animals (especially if in thick 
bush, as it generally is) until a day or two after it has died. 
There were plenty though to be seen all about where I had 
shot the zebras, and as we came along in the morning we had 
seen the trees near the place laden with them, as if with a heavy 
crop of some curious great fruit; so I now determined to pass 
that way, though it was by this time almost too late to hope 
to find lions at the carcases, as I knew would have been very 
likely earlier. I should have liked to go before, on the chance 
of that; but in elephant-hunting everything else has to give 
way to the serious business. On the way back I saw the remains 
of a Grant’s gazelle which had just been eaten by a lion ; and 
just after, on coming out into the open, saw one making away 
ahead, having clearly been disturbed from its prey by our 
approach. I tried to get a shot, but it would not wait, and 
with an irritable swing or two round and up of its tail, and 
sulky growls, made off into the bush before I could get near 
enough for a running shot. 
The place where the carcases of the zebras were was below 
a little knoll—one of the ridges of lava, in fact. We approached 
from above ; and, just as we got near the brow, a lioness 
appeared from behind a bush, having evidently just come up 
from below, but noticing us began to slink away again. I 
immediately gave her a shot in the side with my .450, and 
knocked her over. She lay kicking and growling for a second 
or two and then lay in a crouching attitude, her head towards 
us. I sat on a rock and gave her another bullet in the neck, 
sending her sprawling again and biting savagely at the stones. 
Hardly had I fired the second shot when another lioness came 
up from beyond the first, apparently to see what was up. She 
stood erect after coming over the rise, with head up and neck 
stretched out, looking intently our way and offering a lovely 
