THE LION 195 



you if you had 200 yards start of him. I told him he must have 

 a good steady fast pony, and he cabled to Nairobi while en route 

 to have one sent to my place. I told him that unless the ground 

 was very sound and open I kept off lions (when "riding" them) at 

 least 300 yards and that I never went anywhere near them on 

 rough cracked and broken ground where a pony could not gal- 

 lop, nor into high grass. I also told him that when we bailed up 

 a lion we always waited, at a safe distance, till the others came up 

 and our gunbearers with heavier and more powerful weapons: and 

 that whilst riding the lions we carried handy rifles, I myself always 

 a .256 with which I might shoot at long range but never at close 

 quarters. He often talked of the degree of danger in hunting 

 dangerous game; he did not think there was much danger with 

 buffalo saying that he had shot scores of them and he had 

 found no more danger than there would be in shooting cows: he 

 did not think rhino dangerous but thought lions very dangerous; 

 but to his mind elephant hunting under the conditions he had 

 been used to the most dangerous of all. I often said nothing is 

 so dangerous as a lion and no shot will save you with any cer- 

 tainty in a lion charge but a ball in the brain, a shot that can only 

 be fluked, for you have to hit a thing no bigger than a partridge 

 with your bullet and which you cannot see, and have no time to 

 draw a bead on, that is coming at you at the pace of the fastest 

 greyhound. I estimate a lion covers 100 yards in his charge in 

 3 seconds, perhaps less. Were it possible to draw a bead on his 

 head between or above the eyes he would have passed under your 

 bullet's course before you had pressed the trigger. I also dis- 

 cussed with him the merits of modern cordite rifles and urged 

 that powerful penetration and shock with steel enveloped and 

 nickel-coated bullets gave no advantage over old fashioned big 

 bores and solid lead bullets either soft lead or hardened lead, 

 when it is the case that you must smash down with a huge blow 

 a lion within 30 or 15 yards of you. He was inclined to agree with 

 me but said that for himself he had more confidence in hitting a 

 lion right when charging with a light rifle that was familiar and 

 handy than with a heavy .450 cordite and he added these words 

 "I can never shoot so well with a heavy rifle." 



I told him I never went near a lion without having in my hand 



