The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1906-04-14
A LION ADVENTURE.
IN WHICH AN ENGLISH OFF,
GER rs THE HERO.
A Keen Sportsman-Shoots a Lioness
Two Lions Lament Over Dead
Three Slain in a Single
Night.

90
=. A young English officer arrived last
: August at Simba station near Narobi.
!, IN East Africa, on the Uganda railway
from Mombasa to the Lake of Victoria
Nyanza.
Simba, In the native language, means
lion, and the country around abounds
in lions. 100 laborers having been
killed there In the construction Of the
railway. About 900 yards from the
station is a tank, supported by pillars,
Tor feeding the railway engines. Be
low this tank was a pool formed by
droppings from the tank, and the lions
came at night to drink water there.
The young English officer, Capt.
Chauncy Hugh Stegand, is the son of
William Stegand, a well-kncwG au-
thor, and formerly H. B. M. consul
consecutively for Sicily and the Phil
ippine islands.
He was travelling on duty by the
Uganda railway, and passed the night
at Simba. Being a keen sportsman
after big game, and wishing to clear
b station a little of its unpleasant |
visitors, he, with his orderly, a native.
had made a platform of bars and cor
rugated iron between the legs of the
tank, about eight feet from the ground
for lying in ambush there, and shoot
Ing the lions as they approached the
tank at night. The station had an
East Indian station master, with ma
t1yes under him. On the evening of
August Il there was a full moon. &C.
casionally covered by passing clouds.
Capt. Stegand took his station on the
platform at $50 p. m, and the people
OF the station soon after went to bed.
n the captain was alone on the look
u Nothing occurred up to ten
O'Clock, except the usual prowling of
Jackals crossing and recrossing the
scene in the moonlight. Then the
heard a beast coming behind
him, which proved to be a lioness. She
up, paused under the platform,
and the captain heard the tapping OF
beneath him. He moved to get
sight of her, and made a noise in
turning. The liOness made a side
Jump of about five yards and smelt the
ground and listened. She thus ex-
posed her side, and the captain fired
wo shots. The first shot hit her in the
leck, the second in the heart. She
herself up like a horse about
o buck-as all beasts do when touched
n the heart-and then bolted blindly .
owards the rail, ran on 1t for about
en- yards, and fell between the rails.
knowing from experience that
here is always a lion where there is
~lioness, he captain waited on the
latform. A jackal which had smelt
blood of the lioness ran up and
W on b track of it. Then the
aptain heard the noise of two lions
rashlng through the high grass at a
lfferent point from where the lioness
merged. One came out first and went
p to the dead lioness and smelt the
ody and scratched at it. In a minute
two the other lion came out of the
'ass. Both together scratched the
,dy, when they realized that she was
lad, and both lay down for some time
7 the body, and then got up and
AIRED, then lay down again, and again
Sc and reared, evidently performing
OF Irish wake or funeral sery-
2 with dirge accompaniment over the
ceased liOness.
the clouds occasionally gathered =
er the moon, Capt. Stegand could .
t see the animals clear enough to |
cot from the platform under the
TX, SO he waited for them to come
wards him, as he expected them to
and drink out of the pool. They
ltinued alternately lying down and
ting uD and roaring for two hours.
iackal amusing himself by running
and down the track of the blood
the dead lioness all the time. AT
t the two lions came towards the
tcher, moving slowly and indiStinct
first from the varying light of the
on. They came on, behind the
er; the first lion held his head
vn. The captain fred at him. and
lex his jaw, and the tulet glanced |.
his shoulder. He tumbled over on |,
head. The captain fired a second
t and hit him just behind the heart. =
beast spun round like a teetotum,
n rushed into the ia l sra. S out of j,
1t. The second lion stood watching war
sort of ma e, then fol owed his ~
slowly into the bush, ex.
ing his right side, Inc The captain
t him through the heart. as he E,
W, from his gathering himself up Eos
he usual way, and then boiling grip
div fiji ho foil +. NoSn