Wild beasts and their ways : reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America . into a lower key, and a number of quick short roarsare at length followed by rapid coughing notes, so deep andpowerful that they seem to vibrate through the earth. Our nocturnal visitor did not indulge in the usual solo, but hecontinued throughout the night to patrol the circuit of the camp,occasionally betraying his presence by a guttural roar, or by thewell-known deep sigh which exhibited the capacity of his could not see to shoot, owing to the darkness outside the fence,and the brightness of our fire w
Wild beasts and their ways : reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America . into a lower key, and a number of quick short roarsare at length followed by rapid coughing notes, so deep andpowerful that they seem to vibrate through the earth. Our nocturnal visitor did not indulge in the usual solo, but hecontinued throughout the night to patrol the circuit of the camp,occasionally betraying his presence by a guttural roar, or by thewell-known deep sigh which exhibited the capacity of his could not see to shoot, owing to the darkness outside the fence,and the brightness of our fire within the camp; this my menindustriously replenished with wood, and occasionally hurled fire-brands in the direction of the intruder. At length we went to sleep, leaving the natives to keep watch;they declared that nothing would induce them to close their eyes,as the lion would assuredly carry off one of the party before themorning. To their great discontent, I refused to disturb the nightby firing a gun, as I had determined to hunt up the lion on thefollowing day at 00 00 ix THE LION 189 Upon waking early, we discovered the deep footprints upon thesandy soil, which had marked a well-beaten path around ourimpenetrable fence, showing that the lion had been patrollingsteadily throughout the night. This fact led me to suppose thatI should most probably find him somewhere within a very shortdistance of the camp. I started with some of my best men, andinstead of a light single-barrel I carried my *577 rifle. The position of our camp was exceedingly favourable for game,as the river made a circuitous bend, which had in ages past thrownup a mass of alluvial soil of several hundred acres, all of whichwas now covered with a succession of dense patches of nabbukjungle, interspersed with forest trees and numerous small glades offine dwarf grass, which formed a sward. I felt certain that ourvisitor of the last night must be somewhere in this neighbourhood,and I determined to devot
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdec, bookpublisherlondon, booksubjecthunting
