10 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



was brought to a complete halt by the ravages of a couple 

 of man-eating lions which, after many adventures, he finally 

 killed. At the dinner at the Mombasa Club I met one of 

 the actors in a blood-curdling tragedy which Colonel Patter- 

 son relates. He was a German, and, in company with an 

 Italian friend, he went down in the special car of one of the 

 English railroad officials to try to kill a man-eating lion 

 which had carried away several people from a station on the 

 line. They put the car on a siding; as it was hot the door 

 was left open, and the Englishman sat by the open window 

 to watch for the lion, while the Italian finally lay down on 

 the floor and the German got into an upper bunk. Evi- 

 dently the Englishman must have fallen asleep, and the 

 lion, seeing him through the window, entered the carriage 

 by the door to get at him. The Italian waked to find the 

 lion standing on him with its hind feet, while its fore paws 

 were on the seat as it killed the unfortunate Englishman, 

 and the German, my informant, hearing the disturbance, 

 leaped out of his bunk actually onto the back of the lion. 

 The man-eater, however, was occupied only with his prey; 

 holding the body in his mouth he forced his way out through 

 the window sash, and made his meal undisturbed but a 

 couple of hundred yards from the railway carriage. 



The day after we landed we boarded the train to take 

 what seems to me, as I think it would to most men fond of 

 natural history, the most interesting railway journey in the 

 world. It was Governor Jackson's special train, and in addi- 

 tion to his own party and ours there was only Selous; and 

 we travelled with the utmost comfort through a naturalist's 

 wonderland. All civilized governments are now realizing 

 that it is their duty here and there to preserve, unharmed, 



