to his feet and faced us. In another moment, with
a short grunt, he determined upon a charge, but
hardly was he in his first bound, when I fired the
remaining barrel aimed at the point of the nose, as
this was elevated to such a degree that it would
have been useless to have fired at the forehead. He
fell stone dead at the shot; we threw some clods
of earth at him, but this time there was no mistake.
Upon an examination of the body, we could only
find the marks of the first bullet that had passed
through the neck; there was no other hole in the
skin, neither was there a sign upon the head or horns
that he had been shot; at length I noticed blood
issuing from the nose, and we found that the bullet
had entered the nostril; I inserted a ramrod as a
probe, and we cut to the extremity and fotmd the
bullet imbedded in the spine, which was shattered to
pieces in a portion of the neck. As a souvenir of
this very curious shot, I preserved the skull. My
men now flayed the buffalo arid 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 fhe 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. I accordingly took Taher
Noor, with Hadji Ali and Hassan, two of my trusty
Tokrooris, and went straight to the spot where I had
left the carcase of the buffalo. As I had expected,
nothing remained—not even a bone : the ground was
much trampled, and tracks of lions were upon the
sand ; but the body of the buffalo had been dragged
into the thorny jungle. I was determined, if possible,
to get a shot, therefore I followed carefully the
track left by the (carcase, which had formed a path
in the withered grass. Unfortunately the lions had
dragged the buffalo down wind, therefore, after I had
arrived within the thick nabbuk and high grass, I
came to the conclusion that my only chance would be
to make a long circuit, and to creep up wind through
the thorns, until I should be advised by my nose, of
the position of the carcase, which would by this time