be at once distinguished. Its feet were of a jetty hue.
Though it might have seen us, it continued walking on in a sedate
manner, the rest following their leader with a confidence which showed
that they must put implicit trust in him.

My uncle and Hans, at once dismounting, crept towards the herd; and,
waiting until the greater number had passed, fired together, when three
of the animals fell dead. The remainder, instead of turning to fly,
dashed forward to fill up the gaps in their line, the whole moving on at
a much greater speed than before. Two others, however, were killed
before the herd made their escape through the pass towards which they
were directing their course.

Had we not driven away the lions, probably many more would have been
killed by them. We at once carried off the five which were destined for
provisioning our party, and loaded our waggons with their skins and
horns.

We were now approaching a part of the country where we hoped to find a
greater number of elephants than we had yet met with, our chief object
being to obtain their tusks; although nothing came amiss, rhinoceros
horns, skins, or ostrich feathers; the latter especially, from their
small bulk, were really of more value than elephant tusks.

We were now crossing a wide plain with rocks. Here and there were
ant-hills, by the side of each of which grew a dark-leaved tree called
the "Mollopie." Near our camp was a rain-pool, at which our animals
were watered. Jan here captured a large frog in which, when he cut it
open, for the purpose of preparing it for cooking, he found a whole
mouse, two or three ants, and several other insects.

In the morning our people informed us that they had heard the roaring of
a lion during the night at a neighbouring pool; and as there was a great
likelihood of his paying a visit to the camp, to make a feast off our
oxen, we determined to dispatch him before going out to hunt.

As we approached the pool, the noise was again heard.

"He must be in a thicket close by," exclaimed Harry.

But every thicket round was well beaten, and no lion appeared. At last
I heard Harry laughing heartily, and saw him pointing to the opposite
side of the pool, where I caught sight of a big frog poking his head
above the reeds. There could be no doubt of it. Though he could not
swell himself to the size of a lion, Mr Bullfrog had managed to imitate
very closely his voice, so we returned to camp feeling somewhat asha