, 1880-05-15

the difficulties he had experienced in pro-
curing animal food for his men. He says
t.Our only food consists Of Indian corn
pounded between two stones, with o good
share of sand, and only salt with it. It is
we'll to have even this, but, still, men
accustomed-a all their lives to good animal
food cannot live on such poor fare, and SO
l go out every second or third day with
my gun and kiil a. zebra, leland, water
buck, &c. One of any of these enables us
to live in clover for a single day. A
recent expedition of this kind however,
nearly cost me my life. 1 felt that | must
so in search OF food, as there was not at
the time a morsel in our camp. aud so
forth l sailed. My first shot was at a
giraffe, iato which I put two bullets, and
then followed him over hin and dale until
poon, when heat, thirst. and want of food
obliged me to- give up the chase. After
smoking a pipe and taking some rest, |
was off again, got a shot as q zebra, but
missed him. The zebra, Ishould mention,
is the best meat in Africa. Rather die
heartened, and grieving for the poor, hcl-
low-eyed fellows I should meet on my
return, for whom I had nothing in the
shape of food, [ turned towards camp, and
just at::S.3O p. m. a fine boar dashed past
me. / sent a bullet through him at
ouce, but on he went. | knew,
however. we should find him dead
q few hundred yards ahead by the quanti-
ty Of blood in the long grass, so l follow
ed, but Just then sighted three zebras, so
dropped piggie's trail and went off to try
and stalk the zebras, La about ten min
utes after | heard q fearful row, and my
TWO gun-bearers said it was a rhlnoceros.
l laid hold of my No. 10 bore. handing
my express TO my bearer, telling him and
the man carrying the smooth bore to
keep close to me. I glided silently
thr ough the grass, over eft. high, until
close to the spot. Then / knew if it were
a rhinoceros that he was lying down, as 1
could not see o sign Of him, SO ] decided it
must be two wild bears fighting. Some
thing told me they could not make such a
horrible noise, which actually seemed to
shake the ground end repd the very air
around me. Strange to say, it never
struck me that the noise might proceed
from lions, although the place is full of
them, so advanced boldly, dividing The
grass with my rifle. I then discovered
three lions devouring the pig l had shot,
and in that short time they had finished
half of it. The two nearest were within
eft. of me. and the farthest 33ft. off. The
brutes' boards, chests, and claws were
covered with blood. Though startled, at
first, 1 was perfectly cool, and yet felt
perfectly certain that / must be killed, as
even o tame lion is savage when eating bis
food. The lion opposite caught sight Of
me at once, curled his lips, and lashed his
sides with his tail, but what the others,
Were doing l cannot say. as my friend was
in the. act of spriugiug, and | dare not take
my eye off him for q second. At last he
crouched for the spring, and I let drive at
his face, retreating a step to give me q
chance with the other barrel at one of the
renal ming two, determined to sell my life
de arly ; but, to my great delight, these
two sprang over the grass in opposite
directions. ] gave a -sort of sigh OF relief,
looked round for my gun-bearers, and
there they were so yards off, trembling
with fear and blue with fright. The ras.
calls had run away, and / had no gun TO.
fall back upon. / returned to pick up my
dead lion, but found he had crept4 away
with q bullet through him. 7 followed
his trail until the Jungle got too thick,