expose his shoulder. At this point S'kukusa decided that his present position was useless. He glanced round in search of a better, and at that moment something must have warned the lions that all was not well. They could not possibly have winded us-the breeze was blowing steadily from them to us-nor seen us, as we were all well screened by trees and blowing grass. Be that as it may, just as S'kukusa had decided to move and had turned his head from the lions, they, without one look in our direction, suddenly sprang up and, slipping behind the tree, galloped away. We saw several of them going up the opposite slope in different directions well out of range. A great disappointment, especially to the men. We went up to the tree where the lions had been lying and saw their forms, showing that seven in all had been there. The wildebeest had been killed during the night and very little had been eaten. The men, who are always delighted to get any meat, quickly cut it up and hid it from the vultures. Band was sent back to camp for the donkeys, while I secured the tail for a fly-swish, and after a short halt for lunch we went on again.

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It is very seldom that Africa gives a second chance, and by all the rules of the game we should have had no more luck that day; but we had hardly started off again when we picked up the spoor, first of one and then of another of the troop we had been watching all the morning. After following it for about two hours, eventually it led into a big covert, a dense wood of thorn, known as Fifteen's Bush." After a short consultation, S'kukusa decided to have the place driven out to us. We took up positions where two solitary trees stood at a short distance from the edge of the covert and near the river, just where a game path led down into its dry sandy bed. S'kukusa took his stand behind one tree, and the men, cutting a few palm fronds, stuck them into the lower branches to form a screen. I was ignominiously put up into the other tree close by, in which there was an old machan, used by S'kukusa on a previous occasion while sitting up one night over a kill. To prevent the lions from coming straight up to us when they left the covert, a few thorn-branches were placed across the path to make them pass by us on our right. The men had by now reached the windward side of the bush and were coming round, whistling and shouting to one another. Presently the sweet scent of burning wood and faint trails of smoke showed that they were firing the dry thorns at the far edge of the covert. Evening was

drawing on, and the cool breeze which had arisen was grateful after the heat of the day. Everything was still except for the shouts of the men and the calls of startled birds. A reed-buck came out of the bush at some distance away, and with ears waving and many a backward glance slipped into the river-bed. Then, trotting silently out of covert in the dusk, along the expected path came a pair of fine male lions. They looked enormous in the evening light. One was slightly larger and darker than the other and had a better mane, but neither was the big one we had watched in the morning. S'kukusa waited until they were opposite to us and just about to descend into the river-bed, and then his rifle rang out. As before, I could not tell which of the lions had been hit. Both broke into a gallop at the sound of the shot, but in a moment the larger one tumbled heavily into a slight depression and, throwing up his head, gave some very loud rumbling grunts, whereupon S'kukusa silenced him with a merciful bullet in the back of the head. His companion, after one startled glance round, fled across the sandy river-bed and disappeared into the reeds and palms clothing the face of the opposite bank. On going up to the dead one we found that the first bullet would have killed him in a few seconds in any case, having touched the heart. We measured him, and he proved to be a fine lion in good condition and about five years old. The men set to work at once to skin him. It was late, but sending Band off at a run, fortunately he was able to intercept the donkeys and men, who were on their way back after fetching the meat of the wildebeest killed by the lions earlier in the day. Then, while the lionskin and carcass were being packed on to the donkeys by the delighted boys, we cantered home to camp, where baths and dinner awaited us.

Next morning we were again out early. Lions had been heard roaring during the night beyond the Shlolwene. It was lovely riding along in the cool before the sun was high. We saw many wildebeest and water-buck, many interesting birds, and some little ground-squirrels. After riding for about two miles we picked up the spoor of a troop of lions, which was at first easy to follow along game paths, but later, where they had crossed some rocky ground, the spoor became very difficult to trace, and we went very slowly. At last the tracks petered out altogether in a big grassy flat, so, choosing a shady tree, we sat down to wait and have coffee while Watch and Office puzzled it out. In a very short time they were back again with the interesting

information that the lions were lying up in a big and very dense patch of bush quite near to us, where the men thought that they had killed a water-buck. While we were discussing the next move, Watch suddenly pointed to something behind us and whispered, "There goes the Inkunzie!" (big male), and following the direction of his finger, we saw a great dark lion walking slowly and majestically along the covert-side about two hundred and fifty yards away, looking exactly like a picture out of Harris's South Africa. The men said that he had probably been lying alone and was now going to join his umfazies (ladies). The covert was very large and of dense thorn, and, as it would have been quite impossible to stalk the lions, it was decided to have it driven out to us. The bush jutted out like a grey peninsula into the wide stretch of greensward that spread all along its southern side. The grass was eaten down short by the game, and the only possible place for us to stand was by a small tree growing about a dozen yards from the edge of the bush. I climbed into this and sat on a fork about twelve feet from the ground, while S'kukusa stood below. The lions were expected to come out by a little path on our left hand, which certain signs showed to be their usual exit. We waited in perfect silence, and after a little while we heard the boys calling to one another in the distance, but it was a long time before they had walked round the whole covert. It is difficult to sit perfectly motionless on a hard branch for long, and a seat that at first seems to be quite comfortable can after half an hour become a veritable torture, and I was soon aching all over. We were watching the little path that emerged like a tunnel from the bush, when I became aware of a lion standing in the deep shade just inside the covert. His head was turned His head was turned away from us and he was listening to the sounds behind him. After a moment he took a step forward to the edge of the bush and, lowering his head, gazed out across the grass. frowning visage, with its glowing golden eyes, was framed with waving palm-fronds. He was a big and very dark lion with a black mane.

His

It had been decided not to shoot until the lions came right out of covert and were well past us on our left. This was advisable partly because we wished to secure the Inkunzie, and he, being the largest and oldest, and therefore the most cunning, would almost certainly be the last to leave the bush, and partly because if only wounded a lion usually bounds back into covert. In the latter case much trouble might result before he could be dispatched, or he

may get away wounded, either to linger in agony until death released him, or again he might be crippled, and a crippled lion often takes to killing cattle.

The shouts of the men could now be heard more clearly, and an acrid savour of burning grass drifted down the wind. The lion had been standing looking out for several seconds, but now, turning with almost incredible neatness and silence in that narrow tunnel, he slipped back into the heart of the bush. But his place was almost immediately taken by another lion, as large but not nearly so dark, and with a smaller, yellow mane. He came right out of covert, but stopped uncertainly just outside and directly in front of our tree, on our right. The men were nearer now, and we could hear them tapping the trees with their assegais, while spirals of pale smoke ascended at intervals from behind the wood. Suddenly some dry bush crackled noisily into a blaze, and flames leapt high into the air. By all the rules these lions should now have left the covert, but no rules can be laid down about lions. Instead of doing so, they became very angry, turning to face the smoke and noise with savage grunts. At this S'kukusa swung his rifle round to cover the younger lion, who was still standing outside the bush. The movement caught his eye, and he sprang round towards us with a grunt of rage; but appearing to think discretion the better part of valour, suddenly changed his mind and bounded back into the thicket. Once inside, he lay down facing us, immediately within the bush, in a very cleverly chosen position, in deep shade, his back guarded by some dense thorn-scrub, his head on his paws, one eye for us, one for the direction whence the beaters might be expected to come. Screened by some long grass and waving palms, he was almost invisible and offered a very poor target. If shot and not killed outright, he might charge us, or dash back into the bush and charge the beaters. So S'kukusa shouted to the boys to go back. At the sound our friend leapt up with a furious growl and whisked back to join his companion in the heart of the scrub. They had fairly beaten us, and one could not but admire their tactics. I descended from my tree, and we went round to meet the boys, keeping the rifle ready and a watchful eye on the thicket. It was growing late; it would be dark in an hour, and there was a long walk home. So we turned our heads for camp, leaving two perfectly happy lions triumphant in the shelter of their bush.

FRANCES INGRAM

EMPIRE AND LIFE

RETURNING from a tour of Australia with the delegates of the Empire Parliamentary Association, and travelling via India to South Africa (three continents in a stride, so to speak, and never outside the King's Dominions), I chanced on an Observer with an article under the above title. The subject, migration, is no new one, and during the Imperial Conference has been much discussed, though if the telegrams which we read in Australia are accurate, the discussions have not led to anything more definite than the reiteration of the old phrases about the overcrowded Mother Country," the "empty spaces " of the Dominions, and (the last resort of speakers and writers anxious to appear sympathetic without committing themselves) "the scientific distribution of population. there are signs-the article in question is one, for it avoids all these outworn clichés-that the subject is beginning to assume its real importance, and that it may be lifted out of the region of axiom into that of action.

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Yet

It has always been difficult for many people in Great Britain to realize that she could gain strength by losing population, and this is accentuated by the fact that the Dominions want to pick and choose. On the other hand, there is in certain Overseas circles a jealous fear that migration means dumping Britain's unemployables on their shores. The necessity for developing fresh and friendly markets for British goods, and for building up nations which are to be relied on as allies, Empire or no Empire, is beginning to dawn on the most insular of Britons at home, and should create a fresh outlook from that end, while Australia, at all events, is becoming anxious about her own national position. There is the basis for a fresh start in this matter, but it is by no means as simple as the mere transference of an alleged surplus to an alleged vacuum. The overcrowding of the British Isles and of other old countries is largely due to the concentration of population into towns and industrial areas, and this tendency is affecting the Dominions equally, and with an even more unfortunate result. It is not only a matter of economics. Modern town life offers what to modern ideas is a higher standard of living than can be had in the country. It is true food, housing, and health conditions may not be as good, but