The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-07-11

very quickly again, just as fast as
| could move my Mauser's bolt. Then
he saw me, and with another deep
grunt came straight for where, ] sat,
with great. long bounds.
1.-THE distance from where | sat to
where the lion stood ] measured
carefully afterward. 1t was n
hundred and seventy yards, and now
he came one hundred and twenty of
them faster than l could have be-
lived it possible for any badly
wounded beast to come. The grass
was just long enough to hide his
body from me, except when he was
actually bounding in his stride. If
I had RISEN to my feet of course l
| could have seen him more clearly,
but l had thought the whole thing
out beforehand and had determined
to remain seated. With elbow on
knee you have an absolute steady
rest and are not nearly as apt to
throw away a shot as you may be
standing up. So l sat fast deter
mined not to fire again until I could
kiln him dead, eve If l had to let
him come to within a few yards of
me. l knew, besides, that l had
hit him hard at the first shot, and
| hoped I had landed on the second,
but could not be sure. I did not
believe he could last the distance,
certainly not at the pace he started
at.
"At about fifty yards the lion
raised his head high above the grass
and slowed down to a trot, and, as
/ saw his breast, l shot full into it,
and the great dark head and yellow
eyes sank slowly from sight again.
There was just one %instant's pause,
and out of the grass came the big
forefeet and the tip of the tail. He
was dead without a groan. ! turned
as quickly as l could to see what had
become of the rest, and it was only
in time to fire at a large lioness as
she made off in the grass. / missed
her and, to tell the truth, did not
care, I had drunk deep just then and
as quite contented to let the whole
family of them go. Had l not seen
the great paws of the king himself
streached upward to the skyt
ST went over and stood by my first
lion, He was a magnificent fellow
indeed, very large and in fine con-
dition, with a quite first class name.
AS he lay dead. the tape passed from
the tip of the tail, gave him ten feet
five inches; the stretched skin was
twelve feet six inches"
DIR. Rainsford goes on to tell how
for five consecutive days he followed
bands of lions, with more or less
luck. ct seems poor sort of work"
he remarks, when you try to tell
accurately what happened to follow
ten lions from early morning till late
afternoon and only get one. All 1
can say is that taking it all in all, l
had the best hunting day of my life.
| have no conscience about killing
lions. They are magnificent cats,
but dangerous and cruel above all
others, excepting the cruel leopard"
DR.. Rainsford has much to relate
of other animals which he encount-
cred in East Africa. OF the rino-
ceros he says in the Outlook: Ugly
brutes they surely are and dangerous
as they ere ugly. Now a sporting
license issued by the government of
the Protectorate only permits the
holder to kill two rinos. Personally,
I think this is a mistake. All rinos
should be shot on sight. They are
a common nuisance-too common
Observation-Disclosures for food and es-
pecially dangerous to unarmed peo-
pie. The natives dread them"
He likes the giraffe, and says: Il
never care to shoot a giraffe. AS a
speciman, he is unnatural unless
as he stands and standing he would
look uncouth unless n found him
some such place to stand in as the
rotunda of the Capital at Washington
(He would look better there than
some of the things now in IT'D
1.-The giraffe is too old to shoot;
no one can tell how old he is-much
older than the elephant, probably.
And no one would dream of shooting
an elephant were he not prodigiously
destructive to the farmer and were
his tusks notworth a great deal of
money. But the giraffe is %perfactly
harmless; he was never known to
hurt any one, and he gets his living
off the upper boughs of thorn trees,
which no one can reach but himself
and nobody else would eat if he
could reach them"
DR.. Rainsford is writing a book