Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1912-05-31

long grass on the opposite bank moved apart and
a graceful young lioness stepped out into the
open! was considerably taken aback. for had
no means of ofense defense; moreover. she
was less than stones throw away from me,
looked at her and she looked at Then
as quietly she had come. she departed My
dog had run toward me meanwhile and caught
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 gal
lop into the plains and that the last |
Of her. 1t was certainly 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 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 bare fifteen minutes.
Less than three miles out of Muhoroni station.
as were descending dip In the railway I
noticed something the track. We were ap-
preaching 1t 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 We're 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 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 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 these On some occasions they have
shown fight in most determined manner One
in particular gave me some very anxious mo-
ments 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
nne, 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 a great speed and then disappear in the
long grass | would follow as fast as could and
on reaching the spot where I had last seen him.
would advance with great caution Then he
would spring out and dash off again This was
repeated several times and 1t tired me and go I
lost patience. I esayed long shot and bt him
He disappeared in the long grass with roar of
pain and anger
advanced carefully. keeping a watchfuI eve
Tor possible developments ] could see and hear
where he was but could not get him to come ont
into the open, knew that II was supreme foIIv
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 hie
beast dashed for safety
Suddenly with mighty roar he cana ho,,
ing In huge leaps toward me. fired straight at
his chest and raked him through the entire
length of his body ! fired a second shot and stiII
he came on. although he was MORALLY wundad
My gun bearer handed me my second eun and I
fired again quickly. this time killing him u,s
huge body fell with a crash almost at NV foot
and ] was able to breathe again freely !, bad
been very exciting few minutes and at one time
II looked as II the lion might win Tho skIn
was ruined as far as being good specimen was
concerned. for my shots had seriously damaged
It, However he made a bully trophy and I was
quite pleased with the results Of my shoot m
had followed him into the long grass I should
most certainly have been badly mauled 40 that
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 fnto cover
fooshly