210 
THE LION. 
tively, and with his eyes wide open, Yernaas was 
guided by the motion of a reed. The instant after¬ 
wards he found himself, at ten paces distance, face 
to face with the lioness, who was licking her wounds. 
She had no time even to look up, for the gun was 
discharged—the ball entered her breast, and she 
was a corpse ! 
<c But, although no doubt could be entertained on 
this point, Yernaas, mad with passion, gave the 
carcase a desperate blow with the butt-end of his 
piece.” 
Dr. Burchell gives the following description of 
an encounter with lions. “ The day was exceed¬ 
ingly pleasant, and not a cloud to be seen. For 
a mile or two we travelled along the banks of 
the river, which, in this part, abounded in tail mat- 
rushes. The dogs seemed much to enjoy prowling 
about, examining every bushy place, and at last 
met with some object among the rushes which 
caused them to set up a most vehement and deter¬ 
mined barking. We explored the spot with caution, 
as we suspected, from the peculiar tone of their 
bark, that it was, what it proved to be, a lion. 
Having encouraged the dogs to drive him out, a 
task which they performed with great willingness, 
we had a full view of an enormous black-maned lion 
and a lioness. The latter was seen only for a mi¬ 
nute, as she made her escape up the river under 
concealment of the rushes, but the lion came steadily 
forward and stood to look at us. At this moment 
we felt our situation not free from danger, as the 
animal seemed preparing to spring upon us, and we 
were standing on the bank, at the distance of only 
