The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-03-07
HUNTERS TERRIBLE AD-
VENTURE WITH A LION.
Trapper Tells How He Was Almost Torn to
Pieces in Portugese East Africa on
February IS, 1905.

February 13, 1905, that I had an en-
counter with a female lion that came
near putting me out of the hunting
business for keeps, sent me to the
hospital for fourteen months, and
left me with depression on my right
side large enough to comfortably ad-
nit a mans head, where segments Of
four ribs, some of the lung and a
considerable part of the muscular It's
sue were torn away in mouthfuls,
much as a cat would dismember a
young rabbit.
I had entered the region, which is
on the railroad, near the boundary
between Portugese East Africa and
Rhodesia, the December before. l was
accompanied by two Dutch colonlsts
and QUILTED for sofari with twenty
five or thirty Mashona, Blantyre and
Tit natives, or "boys," and several
donkey cars to collect wild animals
and reptiles for menageries and 20
illogical gardens. Where we could
take the animals alive We hauled
them in bamboo cages in donkey
carts to the railway cars at Bamboo
Creek station, seven miles, put them
in stronger cages and ran them by
rail down to Beira, on the coast, and
shipped them by water to Hagen
bach, at Hamburg, and Cross, at Liv-
erpool.
The country we were in abounded
with game-lions, elephants, rhlnoce-
ri, zebras and the smaller variety OF
monkeys, besides snakes of all de-
scriptions, and for two months we
did flourishing business, particu-
larly in the capture of snakes and
young animals and in taking many
valuable skins, although the main
object of our expedition, which was
to secure one or more adult lions, we
found hard to accomplish.
The favorite and safest method of
taking a lion alive is in the ungoti,
or pit, which is excavated to a depth
of ten or twelve feet, it's mouth given
a frail covering of brush, on which
turf is carefully laid and fitted to
make it resemble natural earth sur
face. The country there is quite
level and given over to a riotous
growth of wacht a bigle, or "wait a
bit'' bush, thorny scrub, which can
only be traversed by following the
game trails, so we always construct
ed our pits along the trails, as lion
is particularly averse to injuring his
feet or body by contact with the sharp
thorns.
1t is the habit of lions, on making
a kill, to eat their fill, leave the car
cass, retire to their lairs for a COM
Portable sleep and return for fur
ther feast when hungry and no other
prey is available.
We had two ways of shooting lions.
One was to build booma, or blind,
of thorny brush near where the lion
he'd made fresh kill and let one or
more men crawl under it for conceal
ment until the return of the animal,
which is nearly always at night. If
there is a moon the hunter can pot
the animals with comparative ease
and safety, for he can shoot through
the openings of his blind, and even
should he only cripple the lion he is
not in much danger from attack, as
the thorny bush will nearly always
stop the animal.
Our other way of shooting lions
was by setting spring guns. To do
this we surrounded the fresh carcass
with scarum, or barricade, of brush,
leaving one narrow opening, which
we usually covered with two heavy
rifles, one from each side, with fine,
strong silk cord attached to their
hair triggers and stretched across the
entrance. Upon the return of the
lion he would circle the barricade
until he found the entrance, and when
he started in, one or the other of the
rifles was pretty sure to get him.
I found the donkey partially eaten
in this case, and had my boys build a
scarum, in which set the rifles; then
we dug several pits. I had discovered
the kraal of an American, few miles
away, and went over to pay him a
visit, for it was treat to meet some
one who spoke English and could talk
of the things and places I knew.
We were drinking Scotch and soda
when some of my boys rushed in
crying, THE lion is over there" I
ran with them, to find that pair Of
lions had visited the carcass, ana
that the male lion had been killed by
the trap guns. The female in prowl-
ing around trying to find a way to