which travelled slowly over the

moon.

MOFFAT'S LION ADVENTURES. 'On our route homeward, we halted at a spot where a novel scene occurred, and which was described by an individual who witnessed it when a boy. Near a very small fountain, which was shown to me, stood a camel thorn tree. It was a stiff tree, about twelve feet high, with a flat bushy top. Many years ago, the relater, then a boy, was returning to his village, and hav

At last his heart leaptthe moon shone in all her splendour. Never was moonlight more prized. There stood the lion, motionless as before; a magnificent creature, superbly majestic, with his head aloft, his mane tossed by the wind, and falling to the knee. It was a black-maned lion of the grandest species. His side was turned towards his enemy. Aiming just underneath the shoulder, Gerarding turned aside to the fountain fired. At the same time the explosion was re-echoed by the mountains, there rose the roar of rage and pain, and through the smoke the lion bounded on his assailant. It was an awful moment. The lion was within three paces; there was no time to aim; the second barrel was fired at hazard, and struck him in the breast. He rolled expiring at the hunter's feet. 'At first,' says Gerard, 'I could not believe that the animal I had just seen bounding upon me in fury, and rending the air with his cries, was that monstrous inert mass lying at my feet. On look ing for my bullets, I found the first, which had not been mortal, placed exactly where I had aimed at; and the second, fired almost at random, had been the one which proved fatal. From this moment, I learned that it is not sufficient to aim accurately to kill a lion; and I began to see that lion-hunting was far more serious than I had imagined.'

for a drink, lay down on the bank and fell asleep. Being awoke by the piercing rays of the sun, he saw, through the bush behind which he lay, a giraffe browsing at ease on the tender shoots of the tree, and to his horror, a lion, creeping like a cat, only a dozen yards from him, preparing to pounce on his prey. The lion eyed the giraffe for a few moments, his body gave a shake, and he bounded into the air to seize the head of the animal, which instantly turned his stately neck, and the lion missing his grasp, fell on his back in the centre of the mass of thorns, like spikes, and the giraffe bounded over the plain. The boy instantly followed the example, expecting, as a matter of course, that the enraged lion would soon find his way to earth. Some time afterwards, the people of the village, who seldom visited that spot, saw the eagles hovering in the air; and as it is almost always a certain sign that the lion has killed game,

brilliant, was overclouded; the moon disappeared; the thunder began to mutter in the distance, like a distant lion; large drops of rain falling on the Arab, awakened him, and made him urge Gerard to retire within the tents. At this moment the Arabs shouted, 'Be on your guard; the lion will come when the storm is at its height.' Protecting his rifle with his burnous, Gerard waited, smiling to observe the heroic resignation with which Saadi-bou - Nar draped himself in his burnous. The rain, like all storm-rains, rapidly subsided. The sky was once more lighted by the brilliant moonbeams occasionally pierc

appeal to the most courageous of the troop, and they advance, guns cocked, towards the lion, who sees them coming, but never moves. Fearing lest their balls should miss the lion and hit the man, they are forced to approach so close, that they can place their muskets in the ear of the lion. This is a critical moment. If the lion has any force left in him, he kills the man lying beneath him, and bounds on the one who has come to the rescue; and as he lies motionless on the body of his victim, it is impossible to know whether he will bound or not. In case his strength is too much wasted, the lion crushes the head of the man beneathing through the breaks in the him the moment he sees the musket approach his ear, and then closing his eyes, awaits death. Such is the lion of Northern Africa.

GERARD'S SECOND LION.

Gerard describes at great length the death of his first lion; but although he learned several useful details by which he afterwards profited, the campaign was not one which can be abridged with interest. His second lion was nearly the victor. He had tied up the dogs in the tents, in order to preserve silence.

Saadi-bouNar, his companion, slept behind him on the ground, while he, rifle in hand, awaited the appearance of his enemy. Suddenly the sky, which had been

clouds; at the horizon a few flashes of lightning were seen. Gerard, grateful for this fitful light, peered anxiously into space, and in one of the sudden flashes there stood the lion, motionless, only a few paces from the enclosure of the douar. Accustomed to find fires lighted, dogs howling in terror, women frantic, and inen throwing lighted brands at his head, the lion was perhaps meditating on the meaning of his silence and calm. Turning carefully so as to take deliberate aim, without the lion's perceiving him, Gerard felt his heart beat as the last cloud passed over the moon. He was seated with the left elbow on his knees, the rifle on his shoulder, looking alternately at the lion, which presented only a confused mass to the eye, and the cloud

or some animal is lying dead, | they went to the place; but sought in vain, till, coming under the lee of the tree, their olfactory nerves directed them to where the lion lay dead in his thorny bed. I still found some of his bones under the tree, and hair on its branches, to convince me of what I scarcely could have credited.

have lost some of our number; for nothing can exceed the terror of oxen at even the smell of a lion. Though they may happen to be in the worst condition possible, worn out with fatigue and hunger, the moment the shaggy monster is perceived, they start like race-horses, with their tails erect, and sometimes days will elapse before they are found.

'Passing along a vale, we came to a spot where the lion appeared to have been exercis

'We were often exposed to dangers from lions, which, from the scarcity of water, frequent the pools or fountains; and some of our number had some hair-ing himself in the way of leapbreadth escapes. One night we were quietly bivouacked at a small pool on the 'Oup River, where we never anticipated a visit from his majesty. We had just closed our united evening worship, the book was still in my hand, and the closing notes of the song of praise had scarcely fallen from our lips, when the terrific. roar of the lion was heard: our oxen, which before were quietly chewing the cud, rushed upon us, and over our fires, leaving us prostrated in a cloud of dust. Hats and hymn books, our Bibles and our guns, were all scattered in wild confusion. Providentially no serious injury was sustained; the oxen were pursued, brought back, and secured to the waggon; for we could ill afford to lose any. Africaner, seeing the reluctance of the people to pursue in a dark and gloomy ravine, grasped a fire-brand and exclaimed," Follow me!" and but for his prompt

and intrepidity, we must

ing. As the natives are very expert in tracing the manoeuvres of animals by their foot-marks, it was soon discovered that a large lion had crept towards a short black stump, very like the human form; when within about a dozen yards, it bounded on its supposed prey, when, to his mortification, he fell a foot or two short of it. According to the testimony of a native who had been watching his motions, and who joined us soon after, the lion lay for some time stedfastly eyeing its supposed meal. It then arose, smelt the object, and returned to the spot from which he commenced his first leap, and leaped four several times, till at last he placed his paw on the imagined prize. On another occasion, when Africaner and an attendant were passing near the end of a hill, from which jutted out a smooth rock of ten or twelve feet high, he observed a number of zebras pressing round it, obliged to