The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-03
nE 1ANN0D AhEN|URD 0l BARON VN nNNTMHN

That Is a trifle otherwise than the, weather that I experienced In Ceylon, where l went huntig with the gov ernor. wore a coat laden with but tons. and 1t happened often that the heat was so intense that one or more buttons would melt during the day.
 By the way, ono afternoon in the iung1e I heard a rustling hehind me and there crouched a huge lion, just preparing to leap! ] must confess to my shame that I lost my presence of mind and fired a charge of hird-shot at him q most foolish proceeding. II only enraged hln. and l wheeled around to run. A cCld chill Ue1t over me, for 1 turned only to find myself face to face with an imrsens" crocodile thnt had already spread Is burrlb!e jaws to their fullest eStei.t to gulr mo down,
 q nm sure that Hercules himself would have done what l did In ttis terrible predicament. l sank to the ground. stunned with terror. The next instant heard a loud crash and lifted my head. In his fury the lion had jumped over me and clean Int" the open jaws Of the reptile
 "lt was the work of an instant to leap to my feet and hack the great ent's head off with my hunting knife. Hardly had tlTe body fallen al my feet, before I seized my gun and forced the head down Into the crocodile's Rullet till it choked 1t to death
 When the rest'of the party arrived there was some astorishment at the double bag. We measured the croco- diie on the spot and found 1t was exactly forty feet seven inches long. It is now a priEed possession of the great museum in Amsterdam, but J never go there because the shameful xN h. |. fa.4 fes is in the habit of. telling strangers that the lion ieaped clean through the reptile before could kill him. To embellish an adventure thus untrulh- fully Is highly offensive to me.
 "f can tell you that a great load fell from my heart when l saw both brutes dead at my feet. By the way can show you that load some day. 1 picked it up as it fell and have 1t in my collection. It Is a red, white and blue stone and weighs thtrty-twO pounds.
 | T quite forgot to tell you that on i my way to Ceylon we stopped at an island where we saw a storm that was different from any l had seen before. It tore up trees of enormous bulk by the roots, and though they weighed many tons they were carried So high by the wind that they appeared like feathers floating in the air. As soon as the storm subsided they all fell per- pendfcular1y into their respective places and took root again, I said all That is not precisely true. When the largest tree was blown Into the air it happened to have on 1t an old man and his wife, who were gathering cucumbers. (That honest vegetable | grows on trees therel. The weight of | this couple overbalanced the tree when 1t descended and brought in down out | of position.
 "it struck the headman of the is, land and killed him on the spot Fl, had run from his house when tn, storm began and was just returning I through his own gate when this for tunate accident happened.
 | "I sayH'fortunate.' This require soml 1 explanation. The chief was an avari cious oppressive, infamous tyrant. H, had plundered the natives, and the, were starving. while the goods ltha' | he had taken from them were rotttns in his stores. The grateful peopI, chose the two cucumber gatherers f, govern them as Il mark of their esteeu for having destroyed the tyrant
 However, we were speaking of bea l call to mind an incident which vii serve to suggest what real heat caI be like It was when I was in Fur key. An American named Smith ar. rived in Constantinople one day in , balloon in which he had started iron New York five days before. thus mak Ing fairly quick passage He invIt cd me to make an ascension with him We took with us only one companion huge Persian hound. We rose swift ly In five minutes we were so hiRl that I could see the entire Black Sc, spread out below also a good bit of tn Mediterranean and a part of Africa. I, an hour all Europe lay below us lik map.
 'Still we went higher, till at las we could see all of Asia, includinl China and Japan. It was really inter esting I was so occupied In lookin, downward that did not realize, unti we were at least fifteen or twent, miles above sea level. that my frien, Smith could not manage his monster tried to help him by opening tn valve, and broke the rope. I fell back ward. and the rarefled air. together witt the terrible heat, due to our being s much nearer the sun. overcame me. s, that lay unconscious for a time
 When I recovered found Smith ly ing insensible, and the hound quit dead. I seized a gun and shot at tn gas bag The air was so thin that could not hear the report; but the sho had its effect. It tore holes Into tn bag and we began to descend. Mir Smith recovered gradually, and ", both began to feel very hungry.
 looked around for food and found ths tho fierce heat had done Us one kind ness at least. It had roasted the doj to a brown turn.
 q had never eaten roast dog before but I must say that it did not tast half bad. Just as we finished ou strange repast the balloon landed fl