The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-07-04

were close by, yelling with excitement
AS walked up to try to get a shot
with out hitting one of the pack, the
lion took no more notice of the dogs
out kept his eyes fixed on me. l never
saw hon look nastier, but suppose
MS broken shoulder had sickened him,
ana shot him without difficulty. The
Mldgan, after calling his dogs, had run
on after us, and had come on the
wounded lion. We skinned this beast,
and the little Midgan rather amused
us, as he got very much annoyed he
cause his dogs would not eat some
great chunks of raw lion flesh he cut
Off and offered to them. We were on
our way to skin the other lion when we
met Hassan looking rather sorry for
himself. He said that the lioness had
trotted along quite quietly at first, and
he had brought her round in a circle
toward the place where he had left us,
riding alongside her, and shouting to
let us know where he was. Unlucxily
she crossed the track of the wounded
lion, and after smelling at the blood
she became perfectly unmanageable,
making off at a gallop and charging
him whenever he got in front to try to
turn her. At last she had gone into
thick bush on some hills, where he had
lost her. When we had skinned the
| other lion we made a cast to try to
pick up the fourth, but could make
nothing % him--I never got this Hon,
although he killed one of our donkeys
the next day.
We had not been back in camp very
long when t came in, saying he
had run across lioness in the hills,
which he was sure was the one we had
seen, as she was very angry. She had
run into some long dry grass, and had
charged out toward his men when they
We're going up to light it., T was
very unwell with fever at the time,
and, although he had two or three
shots, he was so shaky he could not hit
her. and at last felt so i'll he had to
give her up. His shikari told me the
lioness was very much beat from being
badgered about in the sun, and he was
sure we could find her. owed her one
for frightening Hassan, so we started
at once, Hassan not coming, but send
ing relation of his on the same pony.
After a short ride we got to the place,
and found the tracks going into long
strip of high feathery grass. We cast
all round and could find no tracks COM
ing out, so decided to burn the patch.
1t was about two hundred yards long
and perhaps fifty broad. I could not
command the whole of it, so | told the
men to light it at the top and along
one side and Abdulla and / took up our
station half way down the other side,
about thirty yards from the edge. AT
the bottom end I put the warrior on
the pony to see if the lioness broke that
way Almost directly the grass was lit,
big spotted hyena blundered out and
came within few yards of us. but the
great part of the patch was burned be-
fore there was any sign of the lioness.
Then caught sight of her Sinking
along through the thin grass at the
edge of the strip going toward the bot
tom end. She did not see us, as we
were rather behind her and standing
quite still.
When I shot she seemed to stumble
forward, but, recovering herself,
caught sight of the man on the pony,
and before could shoot again she was
half way toward him, going like a
flash. He had not seen her when l
shot, as she was hidden by the grass,
and by the time he got his pony turned
! around and started she was close to
him. He galloped straight away from
me, and dared not fire at the lioness
for fear of hitting him. For nearly
two hundred yards it looked any mon
ey on the lioness. She got right under
the pony's tail, but did not seem to
know how to strike, and at length, 10
my great relief, the pony began to gain
on her She at once pulled up and
turned into a bush, where she lay
down, stretched out at full length,
painting. Running up, shot her be-
fore she could prepare for another eff
fort. My first bullet had gone through
the muscles of the forearm, just below
the shoulder, and being solid, had only
drilled quite small hole. The natives
said that the reason she could not
catch the pony was because a lion can
not spring without a momentary halt
to crouch. If this is SO, a pony could
always get away from a lion galloping
straight behind it, unless the pony was
such a bad one that the lion could
come alongside. On two or three occa-
sions I have been chased myself into
the open grass plain, but have always
got fair start, and my pony has had
no difficulty in keeping out of the lions
way. A pony boy Of mine was very
nearly caught one day in the open. He
was trying to round up lion, and got
rather too close to it on a tired pony.
He only just got away This same lion
afterward chased me and two or three
of my men for quite a long time. I'm
less pony falls down, am sure there
is nothing to be feared from a lion in
the open, If one gives him pretty
wide berth, so as to get a start when he
charges AS rule, the lion will give
up the chase after a hundred yards or
SO. This pony of Hassan's was about
the best I ever saw in Somaliland He
would not put a price on it, because he
said he could make quite respectable
income by making footing expeditions
on it's back, as it was so fast nobody
could catch him.
Just before Hassan's pony was so
nearly caught by the lioness,we had a
pony killed by the lions, the man on its
back escaping rather cleverly. At that
time T and I had two separate
camps, six or seven miles apart, each
of them on the edge of the Marar Prai-
RE, on ban or open grass plain many
miles in extent. This was the best
place for lions it has ever been my
luck to come across. Hardly a day