The Green Forest tribune., 1912-05-24

long grass on the opE site bank moved apart and a graceful young Ii stepped out into the open! I was consid ply taken aback, for had means of offense defense; moreover, sine was less than stones throw away from me-
 1 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 loness disappearing in the long grass. He dashed after her, and had much ado to recall him. The oness crashed off at gal Top into the plains and that the last l saw of her. It was certainly little upsetting and quite spoiled my afternoons stroll. Needless to say 1 returned to my camp and next time took a stroll 1 carried my gun with It 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 I left Muhoroni to into Kisumu-forty miles away. I travelled by a hand-propelled trolley 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, were descending dip in the railway, noticed something the track. We were ap- preaching it at high rate of speed and could not at first make out what it was. 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!
 I had only shotgun and did not dare fire at them for had only small bird-shot with me and only two shells in all. I 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 ascent of the rise. Luckily the two cats did not attempt to follow attack
 As far as I know, these are the only two occa- sons which lions have been seen in this sec- tion of the country.
 But all my many encounters have not been so easy these. On some occasions they have shown fight In a most determined manner. One in particular gave some very anxious mo- ments. I was out hunting meat and picked up the fresh trail of lion. I decided to follow and in due course came up with him. He was a fine, unnamed specimen and a fugrown one.
 I 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 great speed and then disappear in the long grass would follow fast could and 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 1t tired me and so I lost patience. I esayed a long shot and hit him., He disappeared in the long grass with a roar of pain and anger.
 I advanced carefully, keeping a 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 supreme folly to follow him into the long grass-in fact 1t was counting certain death. I 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 mighty ke came bound ing in huge leaps toward me. I fired straight at his chest and raked him through the entire length of his body I fired second shot and still he on, although he was mortally wounded My gun bearer handed my second gun and fired again quickly, this time killing him. His huge body fell with crash almost at my feet and l was able to breathe again freely It had been very exciting few minutes and at one time it looked If the lion might win The skin was ruined as far as being good specimen was concerned, for my shots had seriously damae eed it. However, he made bully trophy and I was quite pleased with the results of my shoot. If I 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 grene 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.