CHAPTER X 

 ELEPHANT HUNTING ON MOUNT KENIA 



ON July 24th, in order to ship our fresh accumulations 

 of specimens and trophies, we once more went into Nairobi. 

 It was a pleasure again to see its tree-bordered streets and 

 charming houses bowered in vines and bushes, and to 

 meet once more the men and women who dwelt in the 

 houses. I wish it were in my power to thank individually 

 the members of the many East African households of which 

 I shall always cherish warm memories of friendship and 

 regard. 



At Nairobi I saw Selous, who had just returned from 

 a two months' safari with McMillan, Williams, and Judd. 

 Their experience shows how large the element of luck 

 is in lion hunting. Selous was particularly anxious to kill 

 a good lion; there is nowhere to be found a more skilful or 

 more hard-working hunter; yet he never even got a shot. 

 Williams, on the other hand, came across three. Two he 

 killed easily. The third charged him. He was carrying a 

 double-barrelled .450, but failed to stop the beast; it 

 seized him by the leg, and his life was saved by his Swahili 

 gun-bearer, who gave the lion a fatal shot as it stood over 

 him. He came within an ace of dying; but when I saw 

 him, at the hospital, he was well on the road to recovery. 

 One day Selous while on horseback saw a couple of lionesses, 

 and galloped after them, followed by Judd, seventy or 



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