24 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



lions, which had been up to that time very little 

 disturbed, were extraordinarily bold and daring, and 

 many colonists and post-riders had narrow escapes 

 from them. A friend and fellow-sportsman of the 

 writer, riding home to camp one day with a steinbok 

 slung behind his saddle, was chased in the most 

 determined manner by a lion in open daylight. 



.In 1898 Mr. R. T. Coryndon, a well-known 

 hunter of big game, had a very narrow escape in 

 broad daylight in the Barotse country (Lewanika's 

 territory, Upper Zambesi Valley), where he is 

 resident. " I saw three lions," he says, in a letter to 

 Mr. Herbert Ward, " one morning in the Batoka 

 plateau, and as there was some cover behind me, and, 

 of course, I wanted to shoot all three of them, I 

 wanted to open the ball as far from cover as possible. 

 They were on a beautiful open country, and I was 

 riding a fine, great grey horse. I put in spurs and 

 galloped at them, when a lioness, which I had not 

 seen before, jumped from behind a bush at me. I 

 was going very fast, and the horse shied violently, so 

 she landed on his quarters and too far back to scrape 

 me off. We all went down together, and I jumped 

 up, snatched my rifle, and, as she turned away for 

 she was surprised and cowed at missing her spring 

 I shot her at seven paces. The horse had a couple 

 of ridiculously small scratches, and I had my left 

 foot torn a little by her tooth, and a claw mark on 

 my right foot a wonderfully narrow escape. She 

 got away, however, after all." 



As a general rule, however, it may be taken that 



