XVIII LION KILLED 311 



I got a little higher up the tree, but although 

 from this position I commanded a somewhat clearer 

 view, I could not steady myself to fire, so I came 

 lower down and fired a shot with the 200-yards' 

 sight. This shot missed the lion altogether, but it 

 had an excellent effect, as the angry brute at once 

 charged out of the grass and came straight towards 

 where he had heard the talking. At first he showed 

 signs of partial paralysis of the hind-quarters, but 

 gathering strength with every stride, he was soon 

 coming along at a great pace, growling savagely 

 and evidently prepared to make things uncomfort- 

 able for the first human being he met. I let him 

 come on to within about fifty yards of the tree in 

 which I was perched, and then shot him right in the 

 chest with an expanding bullet, which tore open his 

 heart and killed him almost immediately. 



This was the last of the thirty-one lions I have 

 shot, and the first and only one of these animals 

 that I ever shot from a tree. He was a fine full- 

 grown animal, just in his prime, with a good mane 

 for a coast lion, very thick set and heavy in build, 

 and enormously fat. My first two bullets had 

 struck him close together just below the tail, and 

 either would probably have killed him had it been a 

 solid projectile, but being expanding bullets they 

 had probably not penetrated beyond the stomach. 



We found subsequently, on examining the place 

 where he had been lying in the grass at the foot of 

 the ant-hill, that he had vomited great lumps of the 

 meat and skin of a wildebeest on which he had been 

 feasting the preceding night. My third bullet had 

 struck him too far back, behind the kidneys, and 

 passing just below the backbone, had momentarily 

 paralysed his hind-quarters, causing him to fall 

 when hit and subsequently to show weakness in the 

 hind-legs. 



