As a
souvenir of this very curious shot, I preserved the skull. My men
now flayed the buffalo and took a portion of the meat, but I
ordered them to leave the carcase as a bait for lions, with which
this neighbourhood abounded, although it was exceedingly
difficult to see them, as they were concealed in the dense covert
of nabbuk bush. I left the buffalo, and strolled through the
jungle towards the river. As I was leisurely walking through
alternate narrow glades and thick jungle, I heard a noise that
sounded like the deep snort of the hippopotamus. I approached the
steep bank of the river, and crept carefully to the edge,
expecting to see the hippo as I peered over the brink. Instead of
the hippopotamus, a fine lion and lioness were lying on the sand
about sixty yards to my left, at the foot of the bank. At the
same instant they obtained our wind, and sprang up the high bank
into the thick jungle, without giving me a better chance than a
quick shot through a bush as they were disappearing.
I now returned home, determined to circumvent the lions if
possible in this very difficult country. That night we were
serenaded by the roaring of these animals in all directions, one
of them having visited our camp, around which we discovered his
footprints on the following morning.
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