MORE ILL-LUCK WITH LIONS.

the shot at the lion ; and, as they had given it up, we decided on burning the grass where it had disappeared, to see if we could not drive it out, as we thought, if it was badly wounded, it could not have gone very far, and might show itself in the open. We accordingly burnt some miles of grass, but without any result ; the only animal we saw being a gazelle, which rushed out into the river-bed, and then bolted back again into the blazing grass, evidently bewildered, and not knowing which way to turn. I afterwards shot a fine bull tetel : there are two varieties in this part of Africa. Lort Phillips and Colvin went on beyond the place where we encamped for the night, to a spot called Abiam, where the bed of the Gash becomes very rocky, and much narrower, and where there are some pools of water.

Their ill-luck with the lions pursued them there ; for, as they were leisurely riding along the bed of the river, they suddenly came upon a lion, lioness, and three cubs, almost hidden under the dense shade of a large ncbbuk-trQ, who as suddenly bounded up the bank, and disappeared ; the ground was too hard to allow of tracking them. We often followed the fresh footprints of lions, but never with success ; it always ended in their getting on ground too hard to take the impression of their feet, or else we tracked them into thick jungle, and there lost them. In returning to camp, Lort Phillips and Colvin shot some tetel, a very mild quarry after one's appetite had been whetted by the sight of lions. Tetel are very common throughout the Base country ; and we thought the meat better than that of any other species of antelope, and so frequently shot them for the pot.

Again we were nonplussed by our tiresome Arabs, who came to us in the evening, to ask us to put off our departure for the Settite, and this time declared that the only way for us to reach that river was by going first to Haikota. They gave two reasons *