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

GUS. Perhaps have been I'M
duly fortunate in encounters with the lion, and
that alone makes him appear anything but the
king of beasts" that he is SO popularity supposed
to be.
have invariably experienced the greatest dan
ger in hunting where elephants were concerned.
With lions have never had any serious trouble.
In fact | have rather a sneaking contempt for
them, for they are harmless except when they
are wounded and followed into the long grass. or
In the case of lioness with cubs. So great a
contempt have the men in East Africa for them
that they have taken to hunting them on
horseback, riding them down and shooting them
with revolvers
/ shall endeavor to show why the hunters of
Africa look lightly upon these tawny beasts
OF the jungle. l must confess. unless / be mis-
understood. that lions may be as dangerous and
even more than other animals of the plains or
forests. under certain circumstances. but it has
never ben my lot to experience any great dan
ger from them. This is primarily due to in
born caution begot the result of years
hunting in the wilderness of tropical Africa.
At times there are man-eaters at large, but for
the most part they lions that have tasted
blood or that too old to hunt their natural
prey. the zebras
Man-eaters rarity rather than otherwise
in East Africa and Uganda. In fact / know of
only one case where white has been eat
by lion during the whole seven years OF my
residence in East Africa. The story of this is
dreadful enough in its pitiless detail, but there
a
ing
stationed at small outlying government
post early IN 1904. when native came in
day and reported that white man. who had
been prospecting for land, had disappeared and
left his caravan Of porters almost starving some
days march away from my post. FASTENED out
to search for the man and to relieve the porters
from their predcament.
On my arrival at the camp l found that the
porters had no idea what had become OF their
[ | mi
came to the conclusion that the man had fallen
victim to prowling beast of the jungles. l
instituted a close search and eventually found
the head and shoulders of the poor fellow.
He had been eaten by lion. of that there
could be no mistake. judging by the remains.
The remnants Of the body were in a bad state
of decomposition and had them placed in a
paelxing-case for burial On my way to the grave
to perform the burial service / was almost over
come with laughter despite the sad OCCASION
by observing on the packing-case coffin the stem
ciled words, Keep in cool place." STOW away
from the boilers" The packing-case had been
used to ship cans OF butter to East Africa. hence
the painted signs
The natives occasionally fall victims to the
depredations OF lions but the white man rarely
does for some unknown reason. Even then the
deaths more often due to gangrene setting
in where men have been maued and rarely from
actual direct killing.
remember well my first meeting with lion.
] was coming home from a dinner party late at
night In Nairobi the capital of East Africa. and
had decided to inspect one of my military guards
on the government railway buildings. When I
had approached near enough to the sentry to
hear what was going on. was surprised to hear
him banging the corrugated iron wall of the
building with the butt end of his Martini-Henri
rife. He was shouting "Shoo! shoot" at the top
of his voice.
/ ran toward him to discover what was the
matter.
why are you making this noise you fool?"
cried
81 lion sir. very near. eating ZEBRA" he
piled
/ ran forward and there enough was a
big black-maned Hon. in the bright moonlight.
eating zebra within fifty yards of the sentry
He had evidently chased the zebra into the
township, killed it and was now happily taking
his supper He paid not the slightest attention
to the sentry's noise. but kept tearing great
masses of flesh from the zebra's carcass. purring
loudly all the time like a huge cat.
My sympathy was with the sentry, for he dare
not leave his post and he dare not fire at the
lioon for he uncertain to the accuracy Of
his old weapon. which had been condemned for
many years by the government and
totally unfit for
Telling the sentry to take advantage of the
safety offered him at the top of nearby lamp
post ! FASTENED to my house to get my sporting
rife In order to do this had to pass within
one hundred yards of the lion, who paid no atten-
ton to at all | hurried back to the spot
with my trusty rife and fired at the lion. badly
wounding It. He dashed off into the plains be-
hind the town. emitting angry roars he went.
decided to follow him for time at least. but
after firing chase he outdstanced me and
forced to return to bed
Next morning I rode out into the plains and
searched for him | picked up his spoor
and In hours had killed my first lion within
few miles of Nairobi township. He was very
fine specimen and well worthy OF my initial ef-
fort in lion-huntlng | justly proud of my
achievement but had to submit to a consider.
able amount of good.natnred char from my
brother officials for being keen to hunt my
first lion by moonlight In the streets of the town
On another occasion a young lion cub was
found by party of US under the raised floor of
the corrugated-iron postofice building In the
main street OF Nairobi, 1t had apparently come
into town With its mother to view It by night
and had probably been frightened by something