226 SUCCESSFUL SHOTS.

same spot, about forty yards from where he was sitting, and was evidently puzzled to make out who or what h was. Raising his rifle, my brother took a steady shot at the centre of his chest. With a roar of pain the lion made off for some dwarf dhoitiH-dXm bushes close by, where both he and the other, which had been wounded, remained all night, and from time to time could be heard groaning. In the morning, as soon as it was daylight, the others, who had heard the shots in the night, came to see what had happened. They could hear one of the lions still groaning in the bushes, and surrounded him, throwing stones to induce him to rush out. They could not move him in this way ; so, carefully advancing into the bushes, they found him just expiring. The bullet had entered the chest, and, having traversed the whole length of the body, was found embedded just underneath the skin in one. of his flanks.

The lion proved to be a very fine one, with a particularly long mane for that part of Africa, where, as a rule, their manes are rather scanty. He measured nine feet two inches in length.

They then went in search of the other lion, and found a pool of blood, where it had been lying all night. They tracked it by its blood for some miles, and caught a glimpse of it several times. It proved to be a lioness, and once they saw it under a tree in the company of two lions. Unfortunately, all three animals got into impenetrable jungle, and were never seen again, although some of us went several times in pursuit. My brother Arthur had seen only two, — a lion and a lioness, — both at the same time. As he fired at the lioness, he only caught a glimpse of her companion. She passed within two yards of where he was sitting, and was not over eight yards off when he fired. In the morning he found her dead and stiff, about twenty yards off, shot through the lungs, and with a broken leg.