THE LION— KING OF BEASTS 



thicket in spite of my men's trying to keep me back. Yet 

 I could see nothing, so dense was the bush, and so fired 

 in the direction of the roar. The shot was followed by 

 still louder roaring, after which I heard a noise that made 

 me think that the lioness in her fury was crushing the 

 bush with her teeth. Again I fired into the bush, but this 

 time the wounded lioness answered with a few short 

 grunts, at the same time making a desperate efifort to get 

 out of the bush and charge. Now she exposed her chest 

 and neck, and instantly another bullet silenced her forever. 



We all went into the bush to drag the trophy out, and 

 found, to our amazement, that the lioness in her anger and 

 pain had crushed one of her own hind legs almost to pieces, 

 having bitten twelve big holes in it, above and below the 

 knee ! This lioness was in her prime, with very large and 

 beautiful teeth. The contents of her stomach showed that 

 her last meal had consisted of zebra meat. 



One of the most remarkable lion stories which I have 

 ever heard, and which I know to be perfectly true, runs 

 as follows: Some years ago a man-eating lion had killed 

 a number of people near one of the stations of the Uganda 

 Railroad. One day, as the Hindu station master, assisted 

 by the switchman, was labeling packages on the station 

 platform, this man-eater charged down upon them. The 

 station master rushed headlong through the window into 

 his office, but the switchman, whose retreat was cut off 

 by the lion, climbed up on a telegraph pole. The station 

 master, in his despair, now sent on the following telegram 

 to headquarters at Nairobi : " Big lion patrolling platform. 

 Switchman on telegraph pole. Send soldiers. My life al- 

 most gone." 



47 



