HUNTING IN THE SOTIK 
187 
not make amends for tiie way I had missed the zebra in 
the morning. Among the thick brush on these hills were 
huge euphorbias, aloes bearing masses of orange flowers, 
and a cactusJike ground plant with pretty pink blossoms. 
All kinds of game from the plains, even rhino, had wan¬ 
dered over these hill-tops. 
But what especially interested us was that we immedi¬ 
ately found fresh beds of lions, and one regular lair. Again 
and again, as we beat cautiously through the bushes, the 
rank smell of the beasts smote our nostrils. At last, as we 
sat at the foot of one koppie, Kermit spied through his 
glasses a lion on the side of the koppie opposite, the last 
and biggest; and up it we climbed. On the very summit was 
a mass of cleft and broken bowlders, and while on these 
Kermit put up two lions from the bushes which crowded 
beneath them. I missed a running shot at the lioness, as 
she made off through the brush. He probably hit the lion, 
and, very cautiously, with rifles at the ready, we beat through 
the thick cover in hopes to find it; but in vain. Then 
we began a hunt for the lioness, as apparently she had not 
left the koppie. Soon one of the gun-bearers, who was 
standing on a big stone, peering under some thick bushes, 
beckoned excitedly to me; and when I jumped up beside 
him he pointed at the lioness. In a second I made her 
out. The sleek sinister creature lay not ten paces off, her 
sinuous body following the curves of the rock as she crouched 
flat looking straight at me. A stone covered the lower part, 
and the left of the upper part, of her head; but I saw her 
two unwinking green eyes looking into mine. As she 
could have reached me in two springs, perhaps in one, 
I wished to shoot straight; but I had to avoid the rock 
