LION KITTENS 115 by the time I had walked round the clump he was far away, putting every possible tree-trunk between us, though only half a dozen yards in a direct line through the clump had at first divided him from us.

It is somewhat strange, considering the extraordinary development of the senses of smell, sight, and hearing, and the eternal vigilance of animals who live amongst beasts of prey, that it should be possible to approach so closely, especially with the disadvantage of hard shoe-leather and the laboured breathing caused by movement in strained and unaccustomed attitudes, with the weight of a rifle in one hand.

The Abyssinian frontier was now within a few miles, marking the end of the somewhat hurried journey up the Binder, and there was a distinct change in the character of the country.

Here three baby lions, carried in boxes on camelback, were met, accompanied by the slayer of their mother, on his way downstream. The httle creatures, with their huge wild eyes, were quite tractable after their few days' captivity, and submitted to caresses with almost the equanimity of kittens. Months later, when grown out of all recognition, one licked my hand through the bars of his cage in Regent's Park, which unhappily witnessed his death and that of his companion some time later.

8—2