Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-04-24

Closing In on the Prey.
At last certain signs show that you
are getting near the end: the crackers
take of their sandals and tuck up
their loin-cloths under their belts. lest
"A corner Tapping I'm the wind should
scare the lion. For the first time YOU
take your rife from the native who
has had charge of IT, and. with your
/ head shikari carrying "a second rifle.
steal forward until the lion is sighted
| or ringed in "a small clump of bush.
Then, when all is over. and the skin
/ Is being taken OFF. how pleasant &c IS
TO sit I'm the shade listening TO the
excited talk of the natives. and Lott
| ting your nerves quiet down again
after the hopes and fears of the morn
ing. You ride home to camp with the
| lion skin behind your saddle. while
one OF your men after another gives
/ his version Of the mornings proceed
l ings I'm a hunting song ON the other
/ hand, when you get a shot, and miss
after long and difficult track. IL
| seems as If any number of lions killed
In the future viii never make mp for
the loss Of this one, which is always
the biggest lion, carrying the finest
name YOU have ever seen The ride
homo TO camp BIS then a silent one. as
no lion means no sheep for the men.
and they are correspondence down.
| hearted.
The first thing TO be done IN track.
Ing is to find fresh spoor. Natives
will often bring news of spoor. but
unlucllily the average villagers idea
! OF a fresh track IS rather hay. /
have several times gone q long way
/ 10 End at the end a track several DAYS
old On one occasion two natives
arrived, saying there were fresh lion
| tracks In a riyerbed. luckily not more
chat half mile from camp. but when
We got there the fresh lion tracks
turned out to be the spoo, OF two hy-
enas, at least a week Old
The spoor OF the large spotted
hycna lis not unlike that of Honess
on certain ground, but the difference
can easily be told. because a hyena
has claws like dog whereas tho re.
tractiyo claws of a lion are always
sheathed and leave no -1rk. uh, bcsi
way 10 find spoor is 10 look for 90
yourself with good trachers. Should
there be any villages near camp
which lions have been I'm the na1it
Of raiding il is very necessary 10 get
there as early as possible in the
morning. ~ once the large l0cks of
sheep and goats and herds OF camcls
which have been shut u9 Ia the yil.
lagos all night are iot out. the ground
an about is "a mass of ind stinguish-
able footprints, and ever" rath from
The village is choked with long strings
OF beasts going of TO their feeding
grounds. Hitting off a lions spoor
under these circumstances rs almost
impossible, and the dust raised by the
herds IS very disagrecablo.
Besides villages, any well in the
neighborhood is a good place to look
for spoor 10 "a lion is about there
ought 10 be no difficulty in picking up
his spoor within a day or two
Battling Ways Of the Jungle Folk.
Rather curious condolences are
sometimes brought 20 light by spoor
Not very long after the date of the
story just rotated. one OF our party
went TO a place whore two lions had
been killing regularly. and sat up two
nights for them with donkey as bait
The lions must have lcf the district
for q day or two while be- was there.
as there were no fresh tracks to be-
found anywhere about Tho day after
be came back 40 camp ] happened 90
ride ont in that direction. Soon after
we started We came ON the sp0or of
two lions. which bed us along "a path
ull We came tO the shooting zoroba.
The night after he had left. the Hons
had walked over the very spot where
his donkey had been lied up On the
middle of the path.
A little later again I happened 10
De a. "a place where he had campel F.
"a few days before A lion roarod near ]