The hunters were presently discovered.  “An old lioness, who seemed to take the lead, had detected me, and, with her head high and her eyes fixed full upon me she was coming slowly round the corner of the little vley to cultivate further my acquaintance!  This unfortunate coincidence put a stop at once to all further contemplation.  I thought; in my haste, that it was perhaps most prudent to shoot this lioness, especially as none of the others had noticed me.  I accordingly moved my arm and covered her; she saw me move and halted, exposing a full broadside.  I fired; the ball entered one shoulder, and passed out behind the other.  She bounded forward with repeated growls, and was followed by her five comrades all enveloped in a cloud of dust; nor did they atop until they had reached the cover behind me, except one old gentleman, who halted and looked back for a few seconds, when I fired, but the ball went high.  I listened anxiously for some sound to denote the approaching end of the lioness; nor listened in vain.  I heard her growling and stationary, as if dying.  In one minute her comrades crossed the vley a little below me, and made toward the rhinoceros.  I then slipped Wolf and Boxer on her scent, and, following them into the cover, I found her lying dead.”

Mr. Cumming’s adventures with elephants are no less thrilling.  He had selected for the aim of his murderous rifle two huge female elephants from a herd.  “Two of the troop had walked slowly past at about sixty yards, and the one which I had selected was feeding with two others on a thorny tree before me.  My hand was now as steady as the rock on which it rested, so, taking a deliberate aim, I let fly at her head, a little behind the eye.  She got it hard and sharp, just where I aimed, but it did not seem to affect her much.  Uttering a loud cry, she wheeled about, when I gave her the second ball, close behind the shoulder.  All the elephants uttered a strange rumbling noise, and made off in a line to the northward at a brisk ambling pace, their huge fanlike ears flapping in the ratio of their speed.  I did not wait to load, but ran back to the hillock to obtain a view.  On gaining its summit, the guides pointed out the elephants; they were standing in a grove of shady trees, but the wounded one was some distance behind with another elephant, doubtless its particular friend, who was endeavoring to assist it.  These elephants had probably never before heard the report of a gun; and having neither seen nor smelt me, they were unaware of the presence of man, and did not seem inclined to go any further.  Presently my men hove in sight, bringing the dogs; and when these came up, I waited some time before commencing the attack, that the dogs and horses might recover their wind.  We then rode slowly toward the elephants, and had advanced within two hundred yards of them, when, the ground being open, they observed us, and made off in an easterly direction; but the wounded one immediately dropped astern, and next moment