The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 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 offense or defense; moreover, she
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 c5ught
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
lop into the plains and that was the last saw
of her 1t certainly little upsetting and
quite spoiled my afternoons stroll. Needless to
say 1 returned to my camp and next time l took
a stroll carried my gun with me. 1t is strange
that the ioness 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 hand-propelled trolley on the railway. The
tri-weekly passenger train from the coast to the
lake had preceded me by bare fifteen minutes.
Less than three miles out of Muhoroni station,
as we were descending dip in the railway, l
noticed something the track. We were ap-
preaching it at a high rate of speed and could
not at first make out what it Suddenly,
when Only about sixty yards away, two young
lionesses 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. l 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 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
easv os use. On some occasions they have
chow, eth a most determined manner. One
N noti., gave me some very anxious mo-
rnants IS out hunting meat and picked UP
tbe fraeh 81 of a lion. l decided to follow and
IN d. aa,.ae came up with him. He was
fine $500, specimen and a ful-grown one.
go ~ Jus eyes upon his hide and decided,
coma VII. night to add him to my trophies,
Tban 49, hare stalk The lion would dash
off at Z sra. spet and then disappear in the
long Grass woul follow as fast as could and
on reacb5ro the 81 where had last seen him,
wouJd odyo,ce wi great caution. Then he
would sn, out nd dash off again. This was
repeated several times and 1t tired me and so
lost patience. esayed long shot and hit him,
He disappeared in the long grass with a roar of
pain and anger
I advanced carefully, keeping watchful eye
for possible developments. could see and hear
where he was, but could not get him to come out
into the OPEN l knew that it was supreme folly
to follow him into the long grass-in fact 1t 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 a mighty roar he came bound
ing in huge leaps toward me. I fired straight at
his chest and raked him through the entire
length of his body. fired second shot and still
he came on, although he MORALLY wounded
My gun bearer handed me my second gun and I
fired again quickly, this time killing HIM His
huge body fell with crash almost at my feet
and | was able to breathe again freely. IT had
been a very exciting few minutes and at one time
It 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 bully trophy and was
quite pleased with the results OF my shoot IF
l had followed him into the long grass should
most certainly have been badly mauled so that
I must have died either from shock or from gan
creme poisoning Nearly every man who has
died at the hands Of lion has done so as the
result of following a wounded lion into cover
foolishly.