The Morning examiner. [volume] (Ogden, Utah) 1904-1910, 1909-04-25
CLOSING In on the Prev.

SlUOIiY IIl VII lIlC ICys
At last certain signs show that you
are getting near the end: the trackers
take of their sandals and tuck up
their loin-cloths under their belts, lest
u corner Tapping In the wind should
scare the lion, For tho first time you
take your rifle from the native who
has had charge OF 1t. and, With your
head shikarl carrying a second rifle,
steal forward until the lion is sighted
or ringed in small clump OF bush
Then. when all is oFer, and the skin
Is being taken Off, how pleasant 1t is
excited talk of the natives, and let
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. ter-another gives
his version OF the mornings proceed.
lngs In a-hunting song On the other
hand. when you get shot. and miss
after a long and difficult track. it
seems as IL any number OF lions killed
in the future will never make up for
the loss of this one. which Is always
tho biggest lion. carrying the finest
name you have ever seen The ride
home to camp is then a silent one. as
no lion means no sheep for the men,
and they are correspondingly down
hearted.
The first thing to be done in track
Ing is TO find fresh spoor Natives
viii often bring news of spoor, but
unluckily the average villagers idea
OF fresh track is rather hazy.
have several times gone long way
to find at the end a track several days
old On one occasion two natives
arrived. saying there were fresh lion
tracks in riyer-bed, luckily not more
that 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
hyena Is not unlike that OF lioucss
on certain ground. but the difference
can easily be told because a hyena
has claws like a dog, whereas the re-
tractiye claws OF a lion are always
sheathed and leave no mark The bcft
way to find spoor Is to look for it
yourself with good trackers. Should
there be any villages near camp
which lions hayo been in the na6it
OF raiding it is very necessary TO get
morning. If once the large llockS OF
sheep and goats and herds of camcl5
which have been shut NJ In the VII
lagos all right are let out, the ground
all about is a mass of indiStinguish-
able footprints, and every path from
the village is cbolted with long strings
OF beasts going off to their feeding
grounds Hitting of a lions spoor
under these circumstances Is almost
impossible. and the dust raised by the
herds is very dlsagreeable
Besides villages, any well in the
neighborhood is a good place to look
for spoor. If a lion is about there
ought to be no difficulty IN picking up
his spoor within day or two.
Battling Ways of the Jungle Folk.
Rather curious condolences are
sometimes brought to light by spoor
Not very long after the date of the
story just related, one OF our party
won't to a place where two lions had
beoD killing regularly. and sat up two
nights for them with donkey as bait
The lions must have left the district
for day or two while he was there.
as there were no fresh tracks to be
found anywhere about. The day after
he came back TO camp | happened TO
ride out In that direction. Soon after
we started We came on the spoor OF
two lions, which led us along a path
till VIC came to the shooting zereba
The night after he had left, the lions
had walked over the very spot where
his donkey had been tied up In the
middle of the path.
A little later again. l happened to
be at place where he bad camped
a few days before. A lion roared near