Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-05-24

long grass on the opposite bank moved apart and
a graceful young lioness stepped out into the
open I was considerably taken aback, for had
no means of offense defense; moreover, she
was less than stones throw away from me.
1 looked at her and she looked at Then
as quietly as she had come, she departed. MY
dog had toward meanwhile and caught
a glimpse of the lioness disappearing in the long
grass. He dashed after her. and had much ado
to recall him. The lioness crashed of at gal
lop into the plains and that was the last saw
of her. 1t was certainly a little upsetting and
quite spoiled my afternoons stroll. Needless to
say returned to my camp and next time took
a stroll carried my gun with me. 1t is strange
that the lioness should have been in these parts,
for never before had been seen in that neigh
borhood.
However, few days later left Muhoroni to
run into Kisumu-forty miles away. | travelled
by hand-propeed trolley on the railway. The
tri-weekly passenger train from the coast to the
lake had preceded me by a bare fifteen minutes
Less than three miles out of Muhoroni station.
as we were descending dip in the railway.
noticed something the track. We were ap-
preaching it at high rate of speed and could
not at first make out what 1t was. Suddenly,
when only about sixty yards away. two young
lionesses got up slowly from the track, where
they lazily stretching themselves. and
climbed the bank beside the track!
/ had only shotgun and did not dare fire at
them for had only small bird-shot with me and
only two shells in all. / shouted to my native
trolley boys to make the machine travel at its
highest speed and they stuck to their work like
heroes. We dashed past the two lionesses and
began our ascent of the rise. Luckily the two
cats did not attempt to follow or attack
AS far as / know, these are the only two occa-
sions which lions have been in this sec
ton of the country.
But all my many encounters have not been so
easy as these. On some occasions they have
shown fight in a most determined manner. One
In particular gave some very anxious mo-
ments. I was out hunting meat and picked up
the fresh trail of lion. / decided to follow and
in due course came up with him. He was
line, unnamed specimen and full-grown one.
cast envious eyes upon his hide and decided
come what might, to add him to my trophies.
Then began hard stalk. The lion would dash
of at great speed and then disappear in the
long grass l would follow as fast as could and
on reaching the spot where had last seen him,
would advance with great caution. Then he
would spring out and dash of again. This was
repeated several times and it tired me and SO
lost patience. I esayed long shot and hit him.,
He disappeared in the long grass with roar of
pain and anger.
I advanced carefully, keeping watchful eve
for possible developments could see and hear
where he was. but could not get him to come ont
into the open / knew that It wae supreme folly
to follow him into the long grass-in fact II was
counting certain death decided to burn him
out My porters and myself set fire to the long
grass and then I stood ready to kill as the BIG
beast dashed for safety.
Suddenly with mighty roar he came bound
Ing in huge leaps toward me. I fred straight at
his chest and raked him through the entire
length of his body. fired second shot and still
he came on, although he was MORALLY wounded
MY gun bearer handed my second gun and
fired again quickly, this time killing him. His
huge body fell with a crash almost at my feet
and I was able to breathe again freely r. had
been a very exciting few minutes and at one time
1t looked as If the lion might win The skin
was ruined as far as being a good specimen paa
concerned, for my shots had seriously damaged
1t. However, he made bully trophy and was
quite pleased with the results of my shoot. II
/ had followed him into the long grass should
most certainly have been badly mauled so that
1 must have died either from shock or from gan
creme poisoning. Nearly every who has
died at the hands Of lion has done so as the
result OF following wounded lion into cover
foolshly