The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-07-23
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
AIuCk and
n Adventure

THE THRILLS OF LION HUNTING
In the last three months two men
have lost arms, and almost their lives,
riding lions. In both cases the same
mistake was made. They pressed
the beast too closely. No horse can
turn or stop as can cat. l have seen
a cheetah I was riding-an animal
very much faster than any lion
actually stop in its very stride. 1t
was as though its claws were glued
to the earth. 1t did not seem pos
sible that such a sudden halt could
be made by anything that ran. Nor
can any other beast show the desper-
ate speed of a cat for few yards
distance. Mr.. Percivale, the game
warden of the Protectorate, who has
probably ridden more lions than any
other man in the country tells me
that he, though we'll mounted, was
once almost pulled down by lion
that he had ridden into cover. He,
too, on that occasion came too close,
the lion for some reason or other dis
pensed with all the usual prelimin-
aries and rushed at him. He turned
his horse as quickly as he could and
rode for his life. He had quite fifty
yards start, and yet he believes that,
had he not fired his heavy revolver
into the face of the lion when it was
almost on his horses hind quarters,
both he and the horse would have
been pulled down. Mr. Percivale
was alone. There was no other
horse or hunter near to divide the
lions attention. This, perhaps, may
account for it's very unusually rapid
and deadly attack.
Hoey was attacked by three lion
esses, near the Rock. The only
provocation he had given them was
that two hours before he had shot
the lion of the band. He was riding
back to his camp, unarmed, having
left his rife with his gunbearer, who
was skinning the lion he had killed
The three saw him from a distance
of quite two thousand yards, and
pressed him hard for a quarter of a
mile. He was riding the same fast
mule that I rode, and so outran them
There are one or two things that
any man riding lions would do well
to remember.
First, it is not well to follow a
lion or lions into cover if you are
on horseback, not even into thin
cover. Once you have chased a lion,
it is very different from the beast that
rapidly sinks away from you, when
you are hunting on foot. In this
last case it instinctively knows it can
mer it finds you have it's pace, and,
resenting that, will attack with, de-
termination. The second lion Hcey
and I rode had every chance to walk
into the impenetrable stronghold of
the river grass if it had wanted to.
The grass grew thickly not twenty
yards from where the lion was first
hit. But it did not want to do any
thing of the sort, and, angered by
the long, hard chase, cast all idea
of further retreat behind and came
boldly away from the covert it had
Secondly, the man who does the
shooting must dismount without de-
lay or hesitation. He must quickly
choose his place, fixing it in his mind
as he gallops up-if possible, spot
from which he can command the lion
for few yards every way, and on
which he can plump down. If there
is no such place, of course, he must
stand up and shoot. All delay is
dangerous. Get the beast before it
rushes in. Any cool hunter can
knock standing lion out with one
shot at one hundred yards Or less.
No living man can be sure of hitting
a charging, snarling embodiment of
death.-Dr. w. S. Rainsford, in The
Worlds Work