With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



fowling-piece, loaded with No. 8 cartridges, the only cart- 

 ridges I had with me. But the lioness presently turned 

 away from me quite calmly, took several steps along the 

 border of the gorge, and then disappeared suddenly among 

 the bushes. The others disappeared simultaneouslv. I 

 waited motionless for a minute where I was. then hastened 

 back to the camp to equip myself properly for a pursuit, 

 when on returning I found that the tracks of the lioness 

 could not be made out. I at once erected a trap for 

 her, tying up a white steer as a bait. 



Shortly after ten o'clock that night I heard an angry 

 roar, and early the next morning I found a large lion 

 with a heavy mane caught in the trap, which he had 

 dragged away into the thorn-thicket several hundred 

 yards. He had not hurt himself in the least with the 

 chain or iron. While I was taking a photograph of him 

 he made a startlingly quick and determined rush at me, in 

 spite of his encumbrances ; but I brought him down with 

 a single shot. Ne.xt night two lionesses were entrapped. 

 And as after this good haul no other lions were to be seen 

 or heard near the stream, 1 concluded that these must have 

 been the three lions I had met. 



Here I may observe that lions and all other cats 

 scarcely injure themselves at all when caught by the paw in 

 these traps, unlike hyai^nas, jackals, foxes, and other animals. 

 I attribute this to the comparatively quiet bearing of the 

 cat tribe when they find themselves in such difficulties. 



I have said that lions are not often to be met with by 

 daylight in the wilderness ; but there have been other 

 occasions, of course, during my years in Africa, when 



390 



