St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1868-09-25

The following from Sir Sameul Ba-
ker's work on the Exploration OF the
Nile Tributaries OF Abvsslnia Is rep!ete
with interest:
Every day, from sunrise to sunset. |
was either on foot or in the saddle with
out rest, except on Sundays, which
generally passed at home, with the re-
Taxation OF fishing in the beautiful river
Settle. There was an immense Quanli-
ty OF large game, and had 4 mixed bag
of elephants, hippopotami, buifaloc<,
rhiEoceros, girallt>, and great number, of
the lar@e antelupe>. Lions, although
numerous, were exceedingly difficult To
bag: there was no ch lnce but in the cx-
trrmc risk OF creeping through the thick
g.; jungle. | pom two or three occasions
had shot them by crawling into their
very den>, where they had dragged their
prey; and must acknowledge thai Ihev
were much more frightened ri me than
was at them. | had generally Obtained
:, most difficult and unsatisfactory shot
AT close quarters spmetime, | rolled
them over with "A mortal wound. and
they disappeared to die III impenetrab.c
Jun@lcs; but ut ali times fortune was on
my side. On moonlight nights gcncr-
ally lay in wait for T. e-e animals with
great patience sometimes | shot hippo
potamI and used Il hlnd quarter ~ bait
for lions, while ! watched in ambush at
about twenty yards distant; but the hv-
and dragged away the bait before tuc
iiuus had Il chance. | never fred at
these scavergrr,, ~ they are most useful
creatures, ;Iud are contemplate ~ game
Ny Arabs had made their fortunes, a. |
had given them all the meat of tine vail
Jus animals, wlicn they dried and trans
ported TO Grccr,I, toLeturr with fat, htG =.
Nr. 1t would he wearyirg 10 rmumer-
ate the happy huhting-lavs passed
throughout tins country. We were never
Ill Tor Il moment although the thcr-
mometer WA, seldom below IS degrees
duriug the day, the country WAS healthy.
a. /. WA, intensely dry. aud therefore
tree from malaria: at night the thcr-
mometcr averaged 40 degrees, which WAS
IA delightful temperature for those vino
exist in the open air.
A. our camp WAS full! of meat. either
dried or in the process OF drying III tr-
toons upon the trees, We had been a great
attraction to the beasts OF prey, that con-
>tantiy prowicl around our thorn teAce
during the might One night in particu-
lar a lion attempted 10 enter, but had
been repulscd by the ToN DORIS who pclt-
ed him with fireb:ands my people woke
me up and br"geI me to shoot him, but
as ii was perfectly impossible to fire cor
rectly through the hedge Ut thorns, | re-
fused to be disturbed; yet l promised to
hunt for him on the following day.
Throughout the entire ni4ht the lion
prowlcd around the camp. grnwling and
uttering his peculiar cultural 81 III. Not
one OF nv people slept, Il they declared
he would bound INTO the camp and take
somebody, unless they kept up the watch
fires and drove him away with brands.
The next day, before sunrise, | called
Ha>san and liadii Ali, whom | lectured
severely upon their cowardice on Il form
cr occasion, and received their promise
10 follow HE to death. ! entrusted them
with my two Reillys No. 10: and with
my little Fletcher IN hand, determined
TO spend the whole day i'll sea- ching
every thicket of the forest for lions. as
telt convinced that tine animal that had
disturbed Us during the might was con-
..nlnl h.r, l.,
boring jungle.
The whole day passed iruitlessly
had crept through the thickest thorns III
vain having an abundance of meats
had refused the most tempting shots al
butialoes and large amelOpes, as | had
devoted myself exclusively to lions.
was much disappointed, as the evening
mad arrived without Il shot having been
fired, and as the sun had nearly set
wandered slowly towards home. Pass
ing through alternate open glades few
Yards in width, hcmmed i'll all sides 10y
thick jungle, L was carelessIy Carrying
my rifle upon my shoulder as l pusuoJ
my way through the opposing thJrn-,
when Il sudden roar, just before Ga, ii,
once brought the rifle upon full cock, and
/ saw a magnificent lion standing in the
middle OF the GLADE, ahout ten yard,
from me; he had been lying on the
ground, and had started to his leet upon
nearing me approach through the jungle.
Fur an instant he stood in an attitude OF
attention, as we were hardly visible but
at the same moment | took quick but
sure shot with the little Fletcher. He
gave IA convulsive bound but rolled over
backwards; before he could reco, or him
LII fired the left hand barrel. 1t wa-
glorious sight. | had advanced a few
steps INTO the glade, aud Hassan had
quickly handed me spare rife, while
Taher Moor stood by me sword in hand.
The lion in the greatest fury, with his
shaggy name brislling in the air, roared
with death-like growls, as open mouthed