100 THE LAND OF THE LION 
excepting the leopard. As game decreases they will become 
in East Africa, indeed, they are already becoming, more 
destructive to domestic beasts and to man; for the lion 
that jumps a boma to stampede a herd is on the road to be 
a manslayer; but even lions should not be recklessly wounded. 
Then, for our own sake I never fired until I knew I had a 
fair chance to kill. My own unaccountably bad shot, at 
only fourteen yards distance, at a lion lying down, had 
taught me how easy it was, even when I shot steadily, to 
overshoot one of these dangerous beasts in the grass. If that 
lion had come at me instead of turning away, I should have 
had to kill him at a few feet distance, or, failing that, go 
down, and no living man can be sure of killing a charging 
lion dead, at a few feet distance. 
Our return to camp, if it was delayed, was triumphant. 
Three lions killed and twenty-seven seen in five consecutive 
days, made up for the long spell of bad luck that went before. 
The curious thing was, however, that though I hunted 
much harder than J. J. W., even after this his fortune in 
sighting lions remained remarkable. He saw them again 
many times before I had another chance to see, much less 
to kill, one. 
I fear it may seem like boastfulness or exaggeration when I 
write as confidently as I have done about the size and qual- 
ity of the lions to be met with in the neighbourhood of 
Sergoit Rock and on the Nzoia Plateau. I can only assure 
those who read my story that there are good and sound 
reasons for my statement. The bulk of a lion depends 
on the regularity and abundance of his food. “The mane of 
a lion depends, in my humble judgment, on three things; 
first, on the cold weather, that is favourable to long hair; 
second, on the nature of the covert in which he hunts — 
if this is open and free from thorns the mane will probably 
be abundant; and third, on an abundance of food. If, 
on the other hand, there is much cactus scrub and thorn, 
