WOUNDED LIONS 
319 
in my reckoning; the one the trap-gun must have wounded, 
who probably was lying in no amiable mood in the immediate 
neighbourhood. Had he been killed by the shot from the trap- 
gun, the carcase would have lain untouched by its mates on the 
spot, for I am not aware that lions eat each other. With the 
increasing light I investigated the scrub, going forward one foot 
at a time, and looking about at each move, along the clearly 
visible track that the lions had made in pulling the ox carcass into 
the scrub to the foot of the high bank. There was no wounded 
lion about here, but where they had drawn the carcase to feed 
under cover of the scrub, the bushes were flattened to the 
ground in the struggles the lions must have had with each other 
over the meat. It must have been a grand fight, for lion hair 
in tufts lay strewn around, and a sapling as thick as my thigh 
was snapped off at the root by the violence of the struggle. 
What a sight it must have been to witness'this fight amongst 
these powerful beasts! 
Convinced that there was nothing below the bank, I climbed 
on to the top to investigate the results of my shot. The light was 
now sufficiently strong to allow me to distinguish the track of the 
lion a few yards ahead in the sand. About fifty yards further on 
I found traces of blood on the leaves of small bushes on both 
sides of the track. This satisfied me that the lion could be got 
later with the help of trackers and dogs, so I jumped down the 
bank and started to walk home, believing that Marteens, who 
carried no gun, had preceded me to camp, borne on the sound 
waves of that terrible roar. However, he had managed to turn 
the horses, who had stampeded at the well-known sound, and 
was coming back to find out what really was the matter, as he 
had some misgivings regarding my fate. His exclamation 
‘ Baas , leef gij nog l ’ ‘ Baas, live you still ? ’ betrayed his state 
of mind when I reached him. However, we galloped off, reach¬ 
ing home just after sunrise. There was considerable excitement 
in camp when it became known that there were two wounded 
lions lurking in the neighbourhood to be finished off! While 
we were making a hurried breakfast, some natives ran off for 
