190 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



fifty yards. Then she ran back, but Kermit crumpled her 

 up with his first bullet. He then put another bullet in her, 

 and as she seemed disabled walked up within fifty yards, 

 and took some photos. By this time she was recovering, 

 and, switching her tail she gathered her hind quarters 

 under her for a charge; but he stopped her with another 

 bullet, and killed her outright with a fourth. 



We heard that Mearns and Loring, whom we had left 

 ten days before, had also killed a lioness. A Masai brought 

 in word to them that he had marked her down taking her 

 noonday rest near a kongoni she had killed; and they rode 

 out, and Loring shot her. She charged him savagely; he 

 shot her straight through the heart, and she fell literally 

 at his feet. The three naturalists were all good shots, and 

 were used to all the mishaps and adventures of life in the 

 wilderness. Not pnly would it have been indeed difficult 

 to find three better men for their particular work Heller's 

 work, for instance, with Cuninghame's help, gave the 

 chief point to our big-game shooting but it would have 

 been equally difficult to find three better men for any 

 emergency. I could not speak too highly of them; nor in- 

 deed of our two other companions, Cuninghame and Tarl- 

 ton, whose mastery of their own field was as noteworthy 

 as the pre-eminence of the naturalists in their field. 



The following morning the headmen asked that we 

 get the porters some meat; Tarlton, Kermit, and I sallied 

 forth accordingly. The country was very dry, and the 

 game in our immediate neighborhood was not plentiful 

 and was rather shy. I killed three kongoni out of a herd, 

 at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and ninety 

 paces; one topi at three hundred and thirty paces, and a 



