. The travels and surprising adventures of Baron Munchausen; . or that purpose, and strewed it in acontinued stream round the encampment; withinwhich circle of tar I immediately placed anothertrain or circle of gunpowder: and having takenthis precaution, I anxiously waited the lions ap-proach. These dreadful animals, knowing, I pre-sume, the force of our troop, advanced very slowly,and with caution; approaching on every side of uswith an equal pace, and growling in hideous concert,so as to resemble an earthquake, or some similarconvulsion of the world. When they had at lengthadvanced and steep
. The travels and surprising adventures of Baron Munchausen; . or that purpose, and strewed it in acontinued stream round the encampment; withinwhich circle of tar I immediately placed anothertrain or circle of gunpowder: and having takenthis precaution, I anxiously waited the lions ap-proach. These dreadful animals, knowing, I pre-sume, the force of our troop, advanced very slowly,and with caution; approaching on every side of uswith an equal pace, and growling in hideous concert,so as to resemble an earthquake, or some similarconvulsion of the world. When they had at lengthadvanced and steeped all their paws in the tar,they put their noses to it, smelling it as if it wereblood, and daubed their great bushy hair andwhiskers with it equal to their paws. At that veryinstant, when, in concert, they were to give themortal dart upon us, I discharged a pistol at thetrain of gunpowder, which instantly exploded onevery side, made all the lions recoil in generaluproar, and take to flight with the utmost pre-cipitation. In an instant, we could behold them. BAKON MUNCHAUSEN. 177 scattered throngli the woods at some distance, roar-ing in agony, and moving abont like so manyWill-o-tlie-Wisps, tlieir paws and faces all on firefrom the tar and the gunpowder. I then ordered ageneral pursuit: we followed them on every sidethrough the woods, their own light serving as ourguide, until, before the rising of the sun, we fol-lowed into their fastnesses and shot or otherwisedestroyed every one of them: and during thewhole of our journey after, we never heard theroaring of a lion; nor did any wild beast presumeto make another attack upon our party, whichshows the excellence of immediate presence ofmind, and the terror inspired into the most savageenemies by a proper and well-timed proceeding. We at length arrived on the confines of an im-measurable desert—an immense plain, extendingon every side of us like an ocean. ITot a tree, nora shrub, nor a blade of grass was to be seen, butall ap
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