GENERAL OUTFIT AND ROUTE OF TRAVEL 



hyenas, and even lions, at close quarters. A German offi- 

 cer, with whom I traveled home from Africa in 1910, told 

 me that he had killed not less than two lions and fourteen 

 leopards at night with a double-barreled, twelve-gauge 

 shotgun during the last six years, and another of my Ger- 

 man fellow passengers corroborated his statements. I 

 myself once killed a hunting leopard with a twelve-gauge 

 shotgun, when I was out bird shooting near Lake Baringo 

 in 1906, to which I already have referred in the chapter 

 on leopards. 



A good many sportsmen also carry a heavy revolver 

 or automatic pistol for use in an emergency at close quar- 

 ters. A young settler in British East Africa who had 

 been badly mauled by a wounded lion, at which he had 

 emptied his gun, but which rushed at him before he could 

 reload, told me that if he had carried his revolver at the 

 time he would not have been mauled. As it was, his life 

 was only saved by the courage of one of his servants, who 

 killed the lion on his very body by a well-aimed shot 

 through its head. 



Some hunters like to use a telescope on their guns for 

 long-range shots on the plains, and I have a couple of 

 times with advantage also used the Maxim gun silencer, 

 which was fitted to the .256 Mannlicher. 



On landing in Mombasa or Kilindini an import duty 

 of ten per cent ad valorem is levied on all articles brought 

 into the country, except on personal wearing apparel and 

 already used cameras. Guns and ammunition are gen- 

 erally charged for at the local value, which is usually 

 equivalent to some twenty-five per cent advance on their 

 cost in Europe or America. 



297 



