The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-05-24

long grass on the opposite bank moved apart and
a graceful young lioness stepped out into the
open! l was considerably taken aback. for had
no means of ofense or defense; moreover, she
was less than a stones throw away from me.
l looked at her and she looked at me. Then
as quietly as she had come, she departed. My
dog had run toward me 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 off at a gal
lp into the plains and that was the last | saw
of her. 1t was certainly a little u~psetting and
quite spoiled my afternoons stroll. Needless to
say / returned to my camp and next time ! took
a stroll l carried my gun with me, 1t is strange
that the l1oness should have been in these parts,
for never before had one been seen in that neigh
borhood.
However, a few days later / left Muhoroni to
run into Kisumu-forty miles away. l travelled
by a hand-propelled 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 a dip in the railway, l
noticed something on the track. We were ap-
preaching 1t at a high rate of speed and | could
not at first make out what it was. Suddenly,
when only about sixty yards away, two young
ltonesses got up slowly from the track, where
they were lazily stretching themselves. and
climbed the bank beside the track!
! had only a 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 us.
AS far as I know, these are the only two occa-
sions on which lions have been seen 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 me some very anxious mo-
ments. l was out hunting meat and picked up
the fresh trail Of a lion. l decided to follow and
In due course came up with him. He was q
fine, unnamed specimen and a full-grown one.
I cast envious eyes upon his hide and decided,
come what might, to add him to my trophies.
Then began a hard stalk. The lion would dash
off at a great speed and then disappear In the
long grass. | 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 off again. This was
repeated several times and it tired me and so I
lost patience. l esayed a long shot and hit him.,
He disappeared In the long grass with a roar of
pain and anger.
! advanced carefully, keeping a watchful eve
for possible developments. | could see and hear
"ueis ue was, uuL cOulu nut get MIN 10 come out
into the open. ! knew that 1t was supreme folly
to follow him into the long grass-in fact It was
counting certain death. / decided to burn him
out, My porters and myself set fire to the long
grass and then ! stood ready to kill as the big
beast dashed for safety.
Suddenly with a mighty roar he came bound.
Ing in huge leaps toward me. / fred straight at
his chest and raked him through the entire
length OF his body. I fired a second shot and still
he came on, although he was mortally wounded,
gun bearer handed me my second gun and 7
fired again quickly, this time killing him. His
huge body fell with a crash almost at my feet
and | was able to breathe again freely. II had
been a very exciting few minutes and at one time
1t looked as II the lion might win. The skin
was ruined as far as being a good specimen was
concerned, for my shots had seriously damaged
1t. However, he made a bully trophy and I WAS
quite pleased with the results of my shoot. II
| had followed him into the long grass I shorId
most certainly have been badly mauled 80 that
| must have died either from shock or from gan.
creme poisoning. Nearly every man who hae
died at the hands Of a Hon has done so an the
result of following a wounded lion into cover
foolishly. II