Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1912-06-05

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 stones throw away from me.
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
lop into the plains and that was the last l saw
Of her 1t 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 one been seen in that neigh
borhood.
However few days later I left Muhoront 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 dip in the railway
noticed something on the track We APP
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
lonesses got up slowly from the track, where
they were 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. l shouted to my native
trolley boys to make the machine travel at it's
highest speed and they stuck to their work like
heroes. We dashed past the two lonesses and
began our ascent of the rise. Luckily the two
cats did not attempt to follow or attack U.S.
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
easy as these On some occasions they have
shown fight in a most determined manner One
in particular gave some very anxious mo-
ments. was out hunting meat and picked up
the fresh trail Of lion. l decided to follow and
in due course came up with him. He was a
fine, unnamed specimen and a 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
off at a great speed and then disappear in the
long grass I would follow as fast as I 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 roar of
pain and anger
advanced carefully, keeping watchful eye
for possible developments. 1 could see and hear
where he was but could not get him to come out
into the open. knew that it was supreme folly
to follow him into the long grass-in fact it was
counting certain death. I decided to burn hin,
out My porters and myself set fire to the long
grass and then l 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- 1 fred straight at
his chest and raked him through the entire
length Of his body l fired second shot and still
he came on, although he was MORALLY wounded
My gun bearer handed me my second gun and
fired again quickly, this time killing him His
huge body fell with crash almost at my feet
and I was able to breathe again freely It had
been very exciting few minutes and at one time
it looked as If the lion might win. The skin
was ruined as far as being a good specimen was
concerned, for my shots had seriously damaged
It, However, he made bully trophy and was
quite pleased with the results of my shoot II
l had followed him into the long grass should
most certainly have been badly mauled so thai
must have died either from shock or from gan
creme poisoning Nearly every man who hal
died at the hands Of a lion has done so as the
result Of following a wounded lion into cover
foolishly.