THE BIG LION. 205 



the mane standing out all around it ; and for the 

 second time I planted a heavy bullet square in 

 his chest. This stopped his advance; he lay 

 down. His head was up and his eyes glared, as 

 he uttered the most reverberating and magnifi- 

 cent roars and growls. The dogs leapt and 

 barked around him. We came quite close, and 

 I planted my fourth bullet in his shoulder. Even 

 this was not enough. It took a fifth in the 

 same place to finish him, and he died at last 

 biting great chunks of earth. 



The howls from the hill top ceased. All gath- 

 ered to marvel at the lion's immense size. He 

 measured three feet nine inches at the shoulder, 

 and nine feet eleven inches between stakes, or ten 

 feet eleven inches along contour. This is only 

 five inches under record. We weighed him piece- 

 meal, after a fashion, and put him between 550 

 and 600 pounds. 



But these are only statistics, and mean little 

 unless a real attempt is made to visualize them. 

 As a matter of fact, his mere height that of a 

 medium-size zebra was little unless accented 

 by the impression of his tremendous power and 

 quickness. 



We skinned him, and then rode four long 

 hours to camp. We arrived at dark, and at 



